OC for Drake
by Sablecatress
Summary: The character that never was, but (in my opinion) should have been.
1. Chapter 1

**Before**

He tore the shawl from over my head.

"C'mere, girlie!" He cackled. "Give us a taste!"

His lustful hands groped down my body. I kicked viciously at the growth on his forehead, but he wasn't to be impeded. I cursed myself for being caught off guard so easily. He covered my mouth with a filthy hand. I sank my teeth into his skin, but he just laughed. "That's right, bite down nice an' hard, won't yer? Cover up the racket ye'll be makin'."

I screamed out loud at the dryness, the heat, the stench coming from him as he laid on top of me. But more than anything I screamed with a hot anger, cursing and spitting in the harsh Styx language. I raked my fingernails down his mutilated face, and blood welled up in some places to trickle into his eyes. He caught my wrist in his hand and forced it down.

"I like me a girl with some spirit." He said. "'Specially a-"

"Cox!" Someone roared at the top of their lungs. The hideous man was suddenly wrenched off of me, and I scrambled away like a crab, covering my face with the shawl and cowering against the stone wall. I watched as a lean form hauled the deformed man away, shaking him like a doll. I gazed intently at the new man. If my hunch was correct, this was the same Topsoiler who had given me and my guard the slip during one of his field tests. He was more resilient than I thought if he had survived three years down here, I thought with grudging respect.

"Get out of here, you mangy excuse for a man!" The newcomer yelled, shoving Cox away.

"I'm a gettin'." Cox ambled away from us.

The other man turned to me and I hurriedly turned my back to him to hide my face. He mistook this as a sign I was afraid of him. "Don't worry, he's gone. He won't bother you again. I'm called Drake, what do they call you?" He stepped forward and gently pulled me around. I had wound my shawl around my head so all there was to see was a slit barely big enough for me to see through.

"Get away from me!" I spat. "I don't need your help." I got to my feet and shoved roughly past him, making straight for the cave where I had hidden my Limiter gear.

"Is that right?" He asked.

I didn't answer him and sprinted away.


	2. Chapter 2

**Deeper**

The two of them bound and blindfolded the boys, then set off at breakneck speed away from the basin where the rest of my guard stood. I strapped my rifle to my back, then crept along the ground, my boots making nary a noise against the loose gypsum scattered along the slope. The two renegades moved remarkably fast, even with their blinded captives. I reached the bottom of the slope and ran forward, ducking behind jutting spires of rock.

I misjudged my target as I leapt from one broken spire stump to another. There wasn't much of a noise, but it was enough to be picked up by one who was accustomed to what was normal in the Deeps, and what was not. I dropped behind the outcropping and tucked myself against its base. Drake called a halt and swung his gun around. He looked directly at me, but his eyes remained on me for only a brief moment before they continued searching the surrounding area. I looked at the smaller figure at his side and felt my gut leap. "Elliott?" I breathed. Was it possible I had found her? What were the chances she would be in league with the man I'd been tailing for so many years now?

My search for her hadn't been out of compassion for my brother, or from the desire to reunite myself with long lost blood. No, I merely looked to see if the rumors were true. If she had inherited any of the hardy stubbornness I associated with her father.

"What is it?" Elliott asked.

"Nothing." Drake said.

_No. Not Drake._ I thought. I watched the proceedings with horrified silence, angry at myself for the way my heart was rent at the sight of him like this. I remembered a night similar to this, during one of his field tests: his strong body was hoisted up on the stake like a horrible sacrifice to an assembly of malicious gods.

A scream yanked from between his clenched teeth, his whole body arching as if his spirit were fighting to escape his tortured body. His eyes came open, and he glared at the surrounding Limiters as if searching for a face, someone to blame, someone to hate. They fell on me. I gasped at the pain that lanced through my chest, as if I'd been run through. His blue eyes glared at me with so much revulsion, years of blackened hatred that had built up inside him, stewing and fermenting for so long, now let loose at me.

I wanted to run, to cover my ears against the inhuman cries that came from his throat, but I stood my ground. A scream brought me back to the present and I returned my attention to the wretched form on the stake. But then I noticed something different about him. I studied his body again. He was too thin, too ragged...nothing like the Topsoiler man I had grown used to over the years. _No._ I thought again. _Not Drake._ This wasn't Drake. I turned to scan the Deeps behind me and without a second thought, shouldered my rifle and trudged up the rise, away from the group. "Where are you?" I said to myself.

I waited until the sound of Elliott and the boys' voices faded as they continued on into the Wastes, then a few more minutes. Only then did I abandon my place where I was crouched in the mud and creep across the ground to the injured woman.

"Sarah?" I whispered, crawling toward her while crouching low.

She gasped.

"Shh, shh!" I soothed her, quickly removing my mask so she could see my face.

Her eyes widened in confusion. "But you're a...a _woman_." She whispered in pain.

I grinned at her. "What gave me away?"

"You're here to kill me." It wasn't a question. She leaned backward as if resigning herself to the mud, closing her eyes.

I laughed. "Why would I do that? I may be Styx, I may be a Limiter, but I am _not_ here to kill you, Sarah."

Her lips formed the word, _why?_

"Hold still, Sarah. I'm going to get you patched up. Then I'll explain everything." Although Elliott had done a good job with her bandages, she had also known what she was doing with her rifle. Sarah was dying, that was plain to see. All there was left for me to do was try to get some food and water in her, and keep her as warm and comfortable as was possible. I started a small fire, and all the while I was aware of Sarah watching me intently. "I've been tailing your two sons for several months now." I said, rummaging in my rucksack for some of my travel rations.

"You have?"

"Yes." I pulled out a package and passed it to her. "They were with a man called Drake, but that was until a few nights ago when they were separated. The girl you saw, Elliott, took over from there."

"You didn't answer my question." Sarah said weakly. "You're a Limiter. Why are you helping me?"

"Maybe I'm just trying to fatten you up so I can eat you in a few weeks." I said, grinning at her from across the fire. "Yes, I've heard what they say about us in the Colony. I only wish I could say it's not true. Not for some of us at least. However, you have no need to fear me." I assured her. "I've been stationed down here for five years. The man who was looking after your sons, Drake, was ambushed. I don't know what came over me...were it any other renegade I wouldn't have given them the time of day. Maybe it's because Drake saved my life three years ago, and I've been trying to repay the debt. I don't like owing anything to anybody. But I decided to follow Elliott and the boys and keep the Limiters off their tail. I knew if Drake was still alive he would try to catch up with them. Then I noticed you were different, definitely not cut from Limiter cloth."

Sarah chuckled. "No, I suppose not. I just needed to know about Tam, my brother." She surveyed the food in her hands. "Why are you helping me?" She asked again. I realized I wasn't going to be able to talk myself out of this one.

I sighed loudly. "Because I don't agree with what my people plan to do to the Topsoilers. I'm one soldier, what can I do to stop them? But I figured if they want Will dead so badly, then I should do all I can to help him."

Sarah grimaced as she tried to sit up.

"Don't." I said, passing her my canteen. "Lay low for a while. You should sleep."

"You're not going to stay, are you?" She guessed, taking a drink of my water.

I shook my head. "No. I have other places to be. I'll stay for a few more hours."

She nodded and fell into a quick sleep. I stood up and scouted out her fallen rucksack, dragging it back to prop it by the fire. I pulled on a dirty over-shirt over my fatigues and wrapped the filthy shawl around my face, and with a final glance back at Sarah, turned to resume my search for Drake.

I caught my first glimpse of him on the Great Plain through my scope as he crouched low, studying several sets of tracks and murmuring to himself. He stood up and ran on again, and I followed, maintaining a distance of a hundred yards between us. Then I noticed he too was following something. Four Limiters, flanking a fifth person. I noticed the way the fifth one walked, stiff and painfully.

"Sarah?" I murmured aloud. They must have gotten to her. I moved a little closer to Drake, but still kept a respectful distance. The Limiters descended the Coprolite ladder into the Sharps, followed by Drake. I waited several moments before I descended the ladder as well. I skipped the last few rungs, landing with catlike precision on the ground amid the wreckage...presumably the result of the rather large explosion I'd heard several minutes ago. I saw Drake throw a few chunks of obsidian to draw off the Limiters guarding Sarah.

"Lucky I'm not on duty." I growled disapprovingly as I watched the Styx soldiers move off to investigate the noise. "Investigating a rock?"

Meanwhile, Drake had run forward and pulled Sarah into his arms. I picked up a handful of dust from the ground and swallowed it dry, coughing a few times before I hissed to Drake, "This way! Come on, this way!" The dust made my voice coarse and rough.

Drake turned to see me beckoning and recognized me as a fellow renegade. He ran over, and I pushed him forward, scouting our backs before following him forward...toward the Pore. Drake cast several glances back at me, and I self-consciously adjusted the shawl around my face, gesturing for him to get a move on. His stamina was impressive. He bore Sarah along with ease as we breasted the gradient overlooking the Pore.

"Elliott and the boys are down there." I said, pointing.

Drake looked at me. "Who are you?"

"That doesn't matter. Do what you have to do." I slipped away as Drake turned to assess the situation, and I was far out of range when he turned to question me further. I had other motives on my mind. First came the prospect of getting out of the Deeps. Then it was down to making a break Topsoil as soon as possible. I had an appointment with my disgraced brother.

The door was opened by a thin man dressed in khaki trousers and an aviator's jacket. I smiled broadly. "Edward James Green?" I asked.

He gaped at me. "What are you doing here?" He looked over my muddied and bloodstained uniform, then he hurried forward to catch me as I slumped weakly against the doorframe. He put his arms beneath mine, as if he were hugging me, and lugged me into the flat, my boots dragging across the floor. With much grunting and groaning he heaved me into one of the bedrooms and let me fall onto the mattress.

"What happened to you?" He murmured, gently brushing aside my hair to peer at my grime smeared face.

I laughed hoarsely. "You know what the Styx are doing topsoil?"

He nodded. "Of course I do."

I propped myself with one arm and glared at him defiantly. "I'm going to stop them."

My brother laughed. "Well, isn't this a coincidence?"

"What?"

"It would seem you've come to the right place." He pushed me back down. "You look exhausted, get some rest. I'll fill you in on everything in the morning."

"First things first," He said, looking me over. "You'll need a change of outfit."

I looked down at my filthy Limiter's uniform and shrugged. "I suppose you're right." I said.

"For now you can wear these." He passed me one of his shirts and a pair of his trousers. "Get changed, we'll do a bit of shopping to expand your wardrobe."

I hurriedly swapped my uniform over for the clothes he'd given me, then followed him outside to the garage where his Aston Martin was parked. I got into the front seat while he started the engine. "I'll teach you to drive it sometime." He promised as he noticed me admiring the chrome inlaying and leather seats. "This and the motorcycles downstairs."

"Motorcycles?" I demanded eagerly.

He smiled. "I thought you'd be interested."

We browsed London's wide range of shopping centres, and I quickly adapted to the styles of modern day women. My brother waited patiently outside of a small cubicle they called 'fitting rooms' while I tried on a few of the clothes I had chosen, and I sometimes came out to model them for him.

"You have no qualms about spending my money, do you?" He asked me teasingly as we proceeded to the checkout with my selected clothes.

"None whatsoever." I said. He showed me how to operate a thin piece of flat plastic from his wallet, something he called a credit card. I took my bags and then went into the centre's restrooms to change into a few of the new clothes. I chose some of the blue denim skinny jeans and a baggy t-shirt.


	3. Chapter 3

**Freefall**

"I'm out to do a bit of shopping." He said. "Keep an eye on our friend in there, though I expect he'll be out a good few more hours."

I nodded. My brother picked up his keys and left. I waited for the sound of his car's engine to fade, peeking through the curtains to make sure, and crept into the room where Drake had slipped into an alcohol induced slumber. That was hardly surprising, as he'd gone into that pub and nearly drank the place dry. I gently brushed his hair away from his face, surveying his craggy, lean features. His face was lined with scars beneath the week's growth of beard. When he didn't stir, I pried open one of his eyelids. There they were, those blue eyes. I shuddered and quickly retreated from the room.


	4. Chapter 4

**Closer**

"How are you feeling?"

Drake peered at me with bloodshot eyes, his overgrown hair sticking out at odd angles, the bruises under his puffy eyes standing out. Everything he did looked painful.

"Maybe you'd better sit down." I helped him onto the mattress. He still held the lamp in his hands, gazing at it perplexedly. He glanced down at the tray I had set in my lap, and I explained. "Black coffee, toast, and aspirin." I said. "Which do you want first?"

"More vodka." He croaked.

I laughed and placed the aspirin in his hand. "Try that for starters."

He dutifully swallowed the capsules and then I passed him the cup of coffee. I left the tray sitting on the mattress and stood up. "He'll be in to see you in just a few minutes."

"Who?"

I glanced back at Drake. "All of it." I said, indicating the coffee, and left the room.

"She's what you would call my..._sister_, though she is several years my younger."

"Do you have a name?" Drake asked as he shook my hand.

"Not one you'd be able to pronounce." I said.

Eddie rolled his eyes. "Mackenzie Green."

Drake stroked his chin thoughtfully and cast his eyes around the room. "Mackenzie." He said ponderously. "I'll call you Mack for short."

I didn't know what to say. "What?"

"Mack and Eddie." Drake said in a self-satisfied tone.

"Then what was all of that?"

"I'll tell you in nine months."

He stared at me for several moments before stammering out, "N-nine months?"

I nodded.

"You're not serious."

"Quite. I don't know why you're so surprised, considering our aggressive encounter last night. I suppose you could say, 'I've had my fill'."

"Aggressive?"

"Utterly. Forceful and assertive. But I respect that in a man."

"Lost my virginity to a Styx." I was surprised when he laughed. "You really are a b*^!#."

"Figure that out all by yourself, did you?" I made a gesture as if brushing something from my shoulder, and turned on my heel and stalked toward the door.

"It was an experiment, you see." I told him. "You had a child with a colonist. I'll have one with a Topsoiler."

"Do you have any idea the implications, the-the stone you may have just set in motion?" Eddie growled at me.

I smiled at him. "That was the idea."

"You always were the risky one."

"Not risky." I said with a wink. "_Risqué._"

"The poor devil probably couldn't help himself." Eddie murmured as he went back to his task, wielding his paintbrush with relaxed concentration. "Like dangling food in front of a child and expecting them not to make a grab for it. You're not even one of the better looking ones."

I laughed. "Thank you for that." Though I knew it was true. I was shorter than most Styx women, stockier and broad shouldered (no doubt caused by my years with the division) yet still unhealthily thin on account of the impending Phase.

"This is a surprise."

"A good one?"

He shrugged. "If you like snakes in your bed, then yes."

I masked the hurt inflicted by his words with a laugh. "They're the best bedfellows."

Drake grunted and shut his door, pacing the length of his room several times. "Why are you here?" He suddenly demanded, turning to face me. "Why do you torment me like this?"

I slunk off of his bed and kissed his cheek. "You're the father of my child."

"Is that why you're here? To infect me with your seductive poisons and drag me down into some terrible hell you've concocted just for me?" He drew his head back as I moved in to kiss him again.

"I'll make it fun." I promised, passing my hands up his chest to rest on his shoulders.

"Think again, darling." Drake growled. He grabbed my hands and pushed them away so they were pinned to my sides.

"You can't resist." I whispered as I gazed up at him.

His head came lower. I felt him trembling, his mouth hovering over mine as he fought between pulling away and giving in. Then his eyes hardened and he roughly shoved me out of the way. He turned his back to me and perched his hands on his hips. "You're nothing but a slippery worm." He said dangerously. I wasn't prepared for when he turned and backhanded me hard across the face.

I just smiled to cover up the pain, refraining from the urge to touch my stinging face. "Darling," I purred. "Why do you resist when you _know_ it's futile?"

Drake's chest was heaving as he looked at me. He looked at the blood trickling down my cheek, and finally sank to his knees and closed his eyes. I knelt down in front of him and tentatively reached out, drawing him close so I could hold his head against my chest. He was too hardened to cry, but I felt him crumbling in confusion and denial.

_How could he love a Styx?_

Then again, how could I love a Topsoiler? I gently ran my fingers through his hair, and he slumped limply against me, submitting his entire will into my hands, entrusting me with his love whilst exposing himself; leaving me the choice to do the same, or to spit in his face and tear out his heart. And I commended myself to him in full. I slowly raised his head until I could look straight into his eyes. "You can't resist." I repeated quietly. "And neither can I."


	5. Chapter 5

"Chester, this is Eddie's sister, Mack."

"Mack?" The boy looked at me cautiously. Neither of us offered to shake hands, just stared levelly at one another.

I blinked slowly. "It's nice to finally meet you face to face." I said calmly.

"What do you mean?" Chester said. "Have I seen you before?"

I stuck my hands in my pockets and shrugged, turning to Drake instead.

"Can I see it?" Chester asked, pointing at the rifle case I had slung over my shoulder.

I shrugged. "Sure." Placing the case on the table, I popped the catches and lifted it up so he could see.

Chester nodded admiringly. "Looks practically brand new."

"I take good care of it." I picked it up and rubbed at a fingerprint on the black barrel with my sleeve. I offered it to him.

".35 caliber bolt-action, right?" Chester said as he took the gun from me, holding it up to his shoulder.

I nodded. "That's right."

"That's one of my scopes, isn't it?" Drake asked. I hadn't noticed him come into the room, and Chester jumped, swinging the gun around in a panic. My hand shot out and caught hold of the barrel, pointing it toward the ceiling in case the safety was off and the boy got nervous and pulled the trigger.

"May I?" Drake took the rifle from Chester and peered at the chunky scope. "Older version. I'll have to outfit you with one of the newer sleeker ones. I've been modifying one in my spare time." He passed me back my rifle and I turned to Chester.

"What do you say we fire off a few rounds?"

He looked at me incredulously. "Really?"

"You're not going to get to be a good shot playing video games. You've already proven to me you barely know anything about handling one of these." I nudged his shoulder good-naturedly to take the sting out of my words.

Chester looked at Drake. "Can I?"

Drake shrugged. "I don't see why not."

I replaced my rifle in the case and handed it to Chester. "Not a scratch, understand?" Then I turned to Drake. "Tell Eddie we'll be back in an hour or two. And tell him I took the Indian."

"Right."

I picked up another box of shells and passed those to Chester as well. Then I started toward the door.

"Wait, Mack!" I turned as Drake stepped toward me and planted a kiss on my mouth.

I tipped my head to one side, my tongue sliding out over my lip as I grinned. "That was unexpected."

"But not unpleasant."

"Far from it."

He gave me a gentle hug. "Be careful."

"Don't worry about me."

"Oh, I'm not. I'm more concerned for Chester."

"You'll get him back in one piece." I assured him. I led the way out of the room and into the garage, and climbed onto the Indian motorcycle. "Come on!" I indicated the passenger's seat behind me.

Chester awkwardly clambered on behind me and then fidgeted uncertainly.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed his hands, putting them on my waist. "Hold on!"

I gunned the motor and lurched out of the garage, and Chester overcame his phobia of touching me and threw his arms around my stomach. I laughed.

"Let me give you a few pointers." I said. "You're squeezing the trigger prematurely. Don't put your finger anywhere near it until you're sure you've got a clear shot. And when you lean your cheek against the stock, tilt your chin to the left, don't tuck it in."

"Like this?"

"That's right. Try to hit the first can."

Chester squeezed the trigger and popped the can off of the wall.


	6. Chapter 6

"Mack?" Drake yelled anxiously into his radio. "Mack what's wrong?"

"Stalker!" I said. "Drake, it got my locator."

"What?"

"The band snapped, the locator's gone." I swore loudly. Suddenly there was a loud crack from my left. I cried out and stumbled to the ground.

"Now what? Mack?" Drake said. When I didn't answer he repeated his call with mounting urgency. "Mack!"

"I'm hit." I managed to gasp out.

"Mack?" Drake's voice was fraught with worry. "Is the stalker still there?"

I looked over at the unconscious beast. "Yes. Yes it is."

"Where are you?"

"As if you don't know."

"I see a blip on a screen, I mean what is your status? Never mind, I'm coming to you."

"No. No, don't worry it only nicked me." I lied as I looked down at my leg. Redness welled up around a bloody bullet hole in my thigh. I clamped my hand over the wound and bit back an anguished cry, struggling to speak in a controlled voice. "I'm coming."

"You are?"

"Yes." I whispered as the first Limiters came over the rise and started picking their way toward me. "I'm on my way. Don't wait for me, keep going toward the colony."

"You're sure?"

I felt the tears stinging at my eyes and glared at the leader who was walking toward me. "I'll catch you up, meet you outside the Fan Controls. I'll see you soon."

"Right."

"I'm coming." I repeated. "I'm coming."

"I love you, Mack."

I bit my lip. "I love you."

I disconnected my throat mike and lifted my gun.

"Just try it." A voice snarled.

There was a series of clicks, the sound of guns being prepped, as the Limiters stood around me in a circle, the barrels of their long rifles aimed inches from my head in a perverse halo. I pulled my finger away from my rifle trigger and raised my hands in surrender.

_At least this will keep them occupied._ I thought as they marched me across the ground toward the Styx Citadel. Maybe it would prove to be the diversion Drake was looking for. I thought of Eddie. Drake had shared with me his plans, that he didn't trust Eddie, and that he planned to "remove him from the equation" as soon as possible. No doubt he'd already done that. I looked back over my shoulder, past the flanking guard of Limiters, and wondered: where was my brother now, and what would become of him?

"First the Laboratories." Drake said stonily. "Then the Hold."

"Why the Hold?" Chester demanded.

"I'm going to get Mack out of there!"

"What do you mean? She said she was coming."

Drake laughed wryly. "Yes. And she's also a Styx. They're brilliant liars."

"In league with topsoilers?" He murmured, looking down his nose at me with evident abhorrence at the very idea. "_Sympathizing_ with them? Whatever were you thinking?"

"I have never betrayed my people." I said. That was a lie. I had betrayed my blood the moment I'd seduced Drake back at the warehouse. The child growing in my womb was proof of that. I thanked the fates it was too early to be detected by anything...at least by anything topsoil. I had no idea what I might say once the Darklight had a chance to loosen my tongue.

"By the time we're through here, maybe you'll wish you had." He said cruelly. The Styx laid a box on the table and extended the stem and shade, in which was contained a dark purple light bulb. He flipped the switch. My gut was wrenched with sudden nausea, numbness spreading from my brain.

"Now, we're going to talk about your habits. Then we'll set about breaking them. How does that sou-?"

The Styx's proposal fell short and the numbing light went out, replaced with something far brighter.

I shielded my eyes against the light shining into the room, then stared at the familiar figure silhouetted in the doorway as it slowly came into focus.

"Mack?" Drake ran across the room and pulled me into his arms. "I thought you'd be in the Hold, why in the heck did they bring you here?"

"Where?" I managed to mumble.

"Mack, you're in the Laboratories."

I achieved a weak chuckle. "Am I?"

"Mack, I need you to pull yourself together. I'll get you out of here, don't you worry."

I finally looked up into his face and my eyes widened. I laid my hands on his face. "Drake!"

He smiled. "Yes. Yes, Mack, it's me. It's Drake. I need you to concentrate." He fumbled in his pocket and pulled out a small tube. "I'm going to give you something, some atropine. Just a quick poke." He pulled the cap from the tube and rammed it against my thigh. His eyes came to rest on the bullet wound in my leg, and he hurried back over to the unconscious Styx, tearing a strip of cloth from the man's shirt. Then he tied the strip in a tourniquet around my upper thigh. Suddenly a loud clatter came from somewhere else in the building accompanied by angered shouting. Drake and I looked in the direction of the commotion. "Okay, love, put your arms around my neck."

"Love?" I slurred deliriously.

"Please, Mack!" Drake grabbed my head in his hands and brought his face close to mine. "Do what I say, please!"

I shook my head, trying to clear my disoriented thoughts, and slowly put an arm around his neck. Drake put one arm behind my back and the other beneath my legs and lifted me from my chair.

"Put my sister down, Drake." Eddie said calmly.

"I can't do that."

Eddie noticed my sickly face and frowned. "What's wrong with her?"

"She's been Darklit." Drake said, shaking his head. "But she wasn't exposed for too long."

"She's bleeding!"

"You have your Limiter pals to thank for that." Drake growled. He helped me to the floor, his gun still pointed at Eddie. I heard their exchange as if from underwater, their words dimmed and indistinct. Eddie said something in what sounded like our native Styx tongue. There was a gunshot.

Finally Eddie crouched beside me and pushed my hair away from my forehead. "I'll return for you when this is over, when I've rooted out our brothers who have the same thinking as us. Pro tem, stay with Drake. He'll take care of you. You can sleep, sister." He patted my cheek as I slipped out of consciousness. "Sleep, now."

"I smell blood." Mrs. Burrows said. "Styx blood, possibly, but I can't be sure with this nerve gas affecting my senses."

"Mack! Mack, darling, can you hear me?"

I mumbled something indistinct, slowly lifting my head to see Drake crouched beside me, with Chester, an unfamiliar bald woman and a Colonist standing behind him.

"Come on, Mack." Drake gently pulled one of my arms over his shoulder and helped me to my feet. I cried out as I rested my weight on my injured leg and staggered against him. Drake pulled me into his arms and sprinted down the hall, followed by the other three. Down the corridor, down a flight of stairs, and into the open.

Another Colonist was sprawled on the ground outside the guard's booth. Drake and the Second Officer exchanged glances.

"He's too heavy for me to manage." Drake said.

"Take Celia." I said. "I can walk."

"Nonsense." Mrs. Burrows interrupted. "From the smell of it you're bleeding badly, and it wouldn't be a good idea for you to be putting any weight on that leg."


	7. Chapter 7

I staggered over to the wall of the stripped warehouse and slumped against it. My leg was shrouded in pain. I rammed my fist against it in frustration.

"That won't help."

I looked up as Drake walked toward me.

"He filled the cellar in with quick-drying concrete." He said as he crouched down next to me. "He's a resourceful bugger, I'll give him that."

All I said was, "He's a Styx."

Drake looked down at the floor, his eyes contemplating the cement with troubled intensity. I touched his face. "What is it?"

"Did you know?"

"That you'd been Darklit? No. That Eddie had other plans?" I frowned. "I had my doubts about his sudden willingness to help topsoilers."

Drake gently probed my leg. I stiffened. "The bullet's still in there." He said.

"Hats off to Professor Boffin." I said sarcastically.

"I need to remove it." He looked over his shoulder and called, "Chester, I want you to run to the nearest café and order a large cup of hot water, no coffee, cream, or sugar, understand?"

"Sure." Chester confusedly ran out of the room.

"What'll that do?" Mr. Rawls asked.

"I need to clean the wound, I have some alcohol for that, but water will be better for cleaning out the accumulated grime and muck." Drake murmured, speaking more to himself than to anyone else. "I don't want to remove any clothing for fear of making the wound worse, but if I cut out a bit of the suit I should be able to get at it." He experimentally shifted the torn and bloodied fabric of the noddy suit's leg as he tried to get a better look at the wound. Mud and dead flora were rubbed into the raw flesh, no doubt put there when I'd fallen after being shot.

I nodded at my Bergen. "Dig in there, would you?"

He opened the pack. "What am I looking for?"

"A shirt, socks, anything really."

He pulled out a black T-shirt and I snatched it from him and used my teeth to tear a sizeable strip of fabric from the bottom half of the shirt. Meanwhile Drake pulled out a med kit and began removing the items he'd need: a capped syringe, a pair of shining metal forceps, a needle and coil of surgical thread, a thick stack of gauze dressings, a small bottle of amber colored liquid. He laid each item in a line alongside my leg. Finally he looked up at me. "Even with the morphine, it's going to hurt."

"Once again you've proven your remarkable knack to point out the obvious." I said.

Chester walked into the room, holding a Styrofoam cup in his hands.

"Set it down there, Chester." Drake said with a nod.

The boy did as he was asked, but rather than leaving the room he hovered anxiously over the two of us. "Can I help?"

Drake smiled and took the syringe in his hands. "Just watch her in case she tries to take a swing at me." He said. "Styx are unpredictable, especially the women." He looked at me intently as he injected the morphine into my leg. "Are you ready?"

I stuffed the strip of torn shirt into my mouth and bit down hard. I nodded at him.

Drake removed the lid from the cup, and dipped the remaining part of the t-shirt into the water. Then he looked at me one more time before wringing it out over my leg, so the water dribbled onto the bullet hole. I didn't scream, but my body tensed and I felt my fingernails dig into my palms as I clenched my hands into fists. Drake placed his left knee firmly over the tourniquet to keep my leg from moving, and picked up the forceps. This time I did scream as he did his best to carefully yet quickly locate and remove the bullet.

Chester swayed uneasily. "There's a lot of blood, Drake."

I could see this for myself as Drake dropped another wad of red-soaked gauze on the floor beside him. "I only hope it didn't nick an artery." He muttered under his breath.

I clamped my jaws down even harder on the strip of T-shirt in my mouth. The cloth muffled my cries, but Chester and Mr. Rawls flinched at every slightest sound I made.

"Yes." Drake said. "Yes, Mack, I've found it. I think I've got it."

My leg thrashed, but he simply leaned heavily on his left knee to pin it down more securely.

"Bullet's out." Drake reported. "Almost there, Mack." I felt him pour more water on the wound, and groaned at the pain. "You're in luck, I think it missed the artery."

"Lucky me." I grunted, but through the makeshift gag it sounded more like, "Ucky 'ee."

"Are you done?" Chester asked.

Drake shook his head. "'fraid not. I've still got to suture the wound up. This is where it gets bad."

"You mean it wasn't before?" The white-faced boy said disbelievingly.

"Brace yourself, Mack." The man said. He was unscrewing the small bottle. I screamed as he poured its amber contents onto the bullet hole.

"Oo shunnuva-!" But I broke off and screamed again before I could say what exactly he was the son of. There was a thud as Chester passed out onto the warehouse floor.

Drake moved with prompt precision, threading the needle through my flesh with the forceps until the wound was closed. Only then did he remove his knee from my leg and dropped the tongs into the pile of bloodied gauze at his feet. He placed several layers of dressings over the stitches and pressed with all of his weight against the gauze. Then he slit the old tourniquet with his knife and fashioned another one directly over the wound and dressings.

I spat out the strip of cloth onto the floor and slumped against the wall with a weak sigh. Drake sat down beside me and laughed. "You're going to be alright. Certainly better than poor old Chester." We both looked over at where Mr. Rawls was fanning his unconscious son.

I leaned my forehead against his shoulder. "I wasn't there." I mumbled.

"What?"

"When you were in the Laboratories, when you were being Darklit. I didn't know. I wasn't there."

"Hey." Drake raised my head to look at me. "I believe you. I didn't think you were." He kissed me gently.

I looked over at Mr. Rawls. "We'd best get some intel on Chester's mother."

"We?"

"I'm coming with you." I said adamantly.

He shook his head. "I don't want you walking on that leg-"

I cut him off with another kiss. "I'm not going to leave you. Never again."

Drake leaned his forehead against mine and laughed. "Never underestimate a Styx."

"Especially the women." I added.

He helped me to my feet. He'd done a remarkable job with the bandage. I found I could put a small amount of my weight on it; enough to walk in comfort at least.

"You know we can't confront her," I murmured to Drake under my breath as I cast a cautious glance at Mr. Rawls. "If the Styx have got to her we'll want to keep our distance."

"Of course." Drake said, though rather distantly, as if he weren't listening to me at all.

Drake pulled out some lawn chairs, a cot, and some sleeping bags. He helped me settle down on one of them, gently stretching out my injured leg and elevating it slightly on a narrow case of equipment. "Comfy?"

"Mmm." I gave him a good-humored smile. "Like the Ritz."

He chuckled and turned to face the others. "Under no circumstances are any of you to leave this garage." He passed me a tranquilizer loaded Beretta and winked at me. "Make sure they heed those orders."

"Whatever you say."

Drake kissed me for a few moments, then walked out of the garage.

Chester tried the door after a few moments. "He's locked us in." He announced.

I leaned my head against the crate and shrugged. "What more did you expect?" I managed to get out of my noddy suit and laid it out on the floor beside me. The muddy, bloodstained outfit made a grisly spectacle, as if it were my gruesomely murdered twin, made even more so by the fact that it was missing half of its right leg.

I probed the bandage around my thigh.

"Does it hurt?"

I jumped at the sound of Chester's voice, and fixed him with a look so intense he actually backed away. Then I shrugged. "I've had worse."

He cast me an apologetic glance. "I would have got you a change of clothes as well, but I was hard pressed for time, and Celia was in more desperate need of-"

I rolled my eyes and interrupted him. "You forget dear, I've gone for _months_ without a proper change of clothes in one of the harshest environments this planet has to offer. I can handle a few more hours."


	8. Chapter 8

Will suddenly leapt away from Drake. "Styx!"

The two kids bristled with hostility as I stepped into the light.

"No, no! It's alright!" Drake stepped in front of me. "Will, Elliott, I'd like you to meet a good friend of mine. This is Mack, and yes, she's Styx." He glanced over at the girl. "In fact, Elliott, she's your father's sister."

"You mean you're her _aunt_?" Will gasped.

Drake nodded. "That's right."

Elliott noticed my stiff gait, her eyes wandering down to the bandage on my leg. "What happened to you?"

I smiled wryly. "Courtesy of the Eternal City's Styx Division."

Drake stepped into the comm room and looked it over. Then he suddenly stiffened. "What's that?"

"What's what?" Will asked.

I followed Drake's gaze to where a model soldier was sitting on a bench in front of the radio. "Did you know that was there?" He demanded.

Will shook his head. "No way. I've no idea where it came from."

"What about you, Elliott?" I asked as Drake and I moved toward the figure. "Know anything about this?"

"Not me." She answered.

Will reached toward the model soldier.

"No! Don't touch it!" Drake inspected the bench, ducking to down to check beneath. "No wires, no traps." He said under his breath. He looked at me anxiously.

I shrugged at him. "What could it hurt? I really doubt he's done anything to it."

"Who?" Will and Elliott asked in unison.

The man slowly picked the figure up from off the bench.

"It looks like a Limiter, but d-" Will started.

Drake interrupted him. "It's the Iron Duke. The Battle of Waterloo is his great passion. This is the Duke of Wellington, but _Eddie _style."

Elliott gasped. "Isn't that what you called my father?"

"Was Wellington a Styx, then?" Will asked.

"No, I don't think so-just a brilliant tactician, and Eddie admired him for it, and the way he trounced Napoleon."

I took the model soldier from Drake and inspected it. "When were you last in here?" I demanded.

"More than two days ago, when I called you." Will paused. "No...Hold on...I came in once after that."

"When, exactly?" Drake snapped sharply. "This is important."

"Ten, twelve hours ago."

"So, while we slept, my father's been here...and he sneaked this in." Elliott frowned. "And Bartleby didn't hear him?"

"He's a Limiter, isn't he?" Drake said. "Right, grab yourselves a weapon. Elliott, you need to tell me now: you're okay with this? I'm not the best of friends with your old man, and if I come across him here, I will use ultimate force. I will shoot to kill."

Elliott answered unhesitatingly. "Sure, ultimate force. He means nothing to me."

"Mack?" Drake turned to me next. "He _is_ your brother."

I cocked my Berretta and flashed him a wicked grin. "Excellent."

"You have your father's looks, but your mother's bearing." I said.

Elliott started. "You knew my mother?"

"Not personally, no. I observed her a few times. Styx women seldom show their faces. In the Colony, that is. On the surface they're practically everywhere."

"I'd started to think there weren't any until the Rebecca twins." Elliott admitted.

I let a grim smile spread on my face. "Oh, there're Styx women alright. You're proof of that."

Elliott looked at me. "That leg doesn't look too good." She pointed out. "You should do like Drake and get some rest. Don't worry, Will and I can handle this."

I patted her shoulder and walked over to where Drake was sitting with his back against the side of the launch. His eyes were closed, but they opened at the sound of my footsteps. He held his hand out to me and pulled me down beside him, draping his arm over my shoulder.

I massaged my leg, which had stiffened in the damp cold.


	9. Chapter 9

"Here, bought some clothes." He passed me a shopping bag. I pulled out a few tank tops, a gray top, some jeans and a leather jacket.

"Stylish." I commented. He left while I changed out of the grimy clothes I'd worn beneath my noddy suit. I kept the combat boots, thinking they added something special to the ensemble, and walked out of the room. The others were talking together, but they stopped when I approached.

Drake, Will, Chester, even Mr. Rawls all turned to gawp at me. I brushed my hair behind my ear and stuck my hands in my pockets, jerking my head at them, and said, "'sup" in a deep drawling voice.

Elliott beamed at me. Regardless of the years I'd followed her and Drake through the Deeps, I still found it difficult to believe that this girl was my niece. But she'd certainly had no trouble adjusting to it. "You look great!" She exclaimed.

Drake stood up. "Yes, you do." He came to stand in front of me. "Though I'd drop the greaser act."

"What's the matter big boy?" I drawled again, thumping him on the chest before sauntering into the group of people with a masculine strut, my shoulders squared. "You don' like the new?"

"No," Drake stifled a laugh. "I preferred the old."

I looked down at Chester and Will. "'Sup."

They burst out laughing, Elliott too, and rolled around the floor in hysterics.

Drake helped me onto the minibus. "I miss the Aston Martin." I said jokingly as I sat down in the row behind the driver's seat.

"Take it to your charming brother." Drake said as he smiled fondly down at me. "How's the leg?"

"Holding up nicely." I responded.

"Glad to hear it." He kissed my cheek. I noticed Will, Chester, and Elliott's faces contort in evident disgust, and laughed. "If it gives you any trouble, I have more morphine if you need it."

I shook my head. "No need for that."

"I'm sorry, Mack." Drake sat down beside me. "I trust you, I really do, but it's-"

"In the case I get Darklit." I finished. "You have to be careful, I understand."

He hugged me gently. "Alright. Lights out. Try to get some sleep."

I pulled the hood over my head and settled back in the seat.

Drake put his arm around my waist and kissed my forehead. "Come on, let's get you sat down. I still don't want you overusing that leg."

"It's about time!" Parry proclaimed as he watched the exchange. "Got yourself a ruddy hen now, to go with your flipping 'drake' do you?" He came stiffly over and peered at me. "Well, she's good looking, I'll give her that!"

"So..." I began tentatively, unsure of whether this was ground I wanted to be stepping on or not. "Dad, huh?"

"Yes."

"Huh." I shrugged. "He knows what I am, I take it?"

Drake laughed and put an arm over my shoulders as he steered me down the hall. "Dad says we can have this room."

I scanned the interior. "Your room?" I guessed.

Drake nodded. "The one I grew up in." He rubbed his palm against the wallpaper as if reminiscing on old times, then he added hastily, "Unless of course you wanted your own room. I can still work something out if-"

"Shh." I put a finger to his lips. "What I wanted was to be with you. This'll be perfect."

"Drake?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you mind shutting the door? There's something I feel we need to talk about."

He closed the door behind him and took my hands, crouching down in front of me. "What's up?"

I closed my eyes. "I'm afraid I've got some bad news."

He looked up at me with concern and confusion. "What do you mean?"

"I mean-" My voice faltered. "I mean after I was Darklit in the Laboratories, there were...side effects."

"You were only in there for a couple of minutes-" Drake began.

"I lost it." I said abruptly.

"You lost it?" He said, almost amusedly, and I realized he thought I meant 'lost it' as in 'lost my marbles'.

I shook my head, willing him to understand. "No, darling, I mean I lost _it_."

Finally his eyes widened in comprehension. "Mack, I'm sorry."

I sat up in the middle of the night. The window was open ever so slightly, allowing a cool draft to breathe through the room, gently tousling my hair. I looked down at Drake, looking so peaceful, his skin awash with pallid moonlight filtering through the pane. I loved him so dearly, so badly, so fiercely it made me ache at the core of my very being. I loved him in ways he would never be able to understand. He would never know how I had dogged him through the Deeps, tracking him to his hideouts, watching him in his sleep on countless nights while he hadn't the slightest idea I had ever been within a hundred miles of him. He would never know how it was my life he had spared from that disgusting Tom Cox. How I had watched him strung up and tortured on a stake and done nothing, standing by while he endured hours of pain and anguish.

The guilt was like a hideous creature chained into the deepest, darkest part of me, gnawing away at my innards and leaving me feeling hollow and desperate.

He would never know...unless I told him.

Goosebumps rose up along my arms, and I hugged myself, shivering despite the fact that the weak breeze blowing through the window was hardly enough to provoke a chill. Still I looked at Drake. He shifted in his sleep, rolling onto his side so his back was to me.

"All in good time." I whispered to myself. I kissed him on the top of his head, breathing in the scent of his hair. "All in good time." I leaned against his back and tried to go back to sleep.

He sighed. "I'm afraid I haven't been entirely straight with you, love."

I blinked slowly. "About what?"

"About Chester's mother, about Mrs. Rawls. She _did _overcome the Darklight programming. However, I instructed her to keep up the ruse as if she hadn't. She's been feeding me information on the Styx by leaving me messages in a newsstand near the coffee shop where I left you a few days ago."

I nodded at him, but didn't say anything.

Drake took my hands in his and looked at me nervously. "You aren't upset with me...are you?"

I laughed out loud. "Of course not! Don't be ridiculous! How could I be?" I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him tight.

He returned the embrace and swung me around in a full circle.

"I got you something." He said.

"What kind of something?" I said suspiciously.

He pulled out a bandana and used it to cover my eyes. I smirked. "Oh. _That_ kind of something."

Drake picked me up piggy-back style and I heard his footsteps as he carried me out of the room. "I hope you know Styx don't celebrate birthdays." I said.

He laughed and sat me down in a chair, then untied the bandana. I was surprised to see everyone standing around me, but I didn't let it show. Drake picked something up and set it on the table in front of me: my rifle case.

"I realize you lost your old one during the Op we did in the Eternal City." He said. "So I called in a favor and had one custom-made."

I popped the catches of the case, my breath catching in my throat as I saw the gun inside.

"I borrowed the open-saddle stock design from the SAKO TRG-42 .300 Winchester Mag, though I upped the caliber to .45."

I hefted the weapon. It was slightly heavier than my former Styx rifle, but I enjoyed how the extra weight made the gun feel definite in my hands. I inspected the long scope mounted on top.

"My new and improved nightscope." Drake said. "Which doubles as a 6-10X sniper's scope. Not even the Limiters have anything like this baby."

I was still appreciatively admiring the black gun when Elliott exclaimed, "Oh go on, Auntie! Give it a go!"

I shot her a mischievous grin. "Feeling up to a shooting tournament?"

She smiled broadly. "I'll get my rifle!"

"Not without us!" Will and Chester called. All three kids scrambled away from the table, the boys following Elliott to her room as she ran to get her gun.

"It's magnificent, darling." I told Drake. "Care to come with us?"

"Oh no. You go off and have your fun.

We borrowed Parry's clay pigeon launcher and my niece and I got into firing position. We took turns shooting at the orange discs as Will and Chester pulled the lever to let them fly out across the lake. I barely felt the recoil as I squeezed the trigger.

Elliott shook her head. "You're much too good at this."

I laughed. "I've had nearly eleven years of practice." I reminded her as I followed the course of a clay disc across the sky and blasted it to smithereens. "Not counting the ten years before when I trained with your father as he prepared to join the Limiters." I let Elliott and the boys shoot a few rounds on my new rifle.

Elliott looked at Chester incredulously as he shot one of the pigeons. "You've gotten lots better at this." She pointed out.

"Picked up a few tips from a skilled deadeye." Chester glanced over at me and I winked.

A slight drizzle started up, and Elliott and I shouldered our guns and led the way across the estate back to the house. Drake met us on the terrace.

"How'd she behave?"

"Like a charm." I said.


	10. Chapter 10

I was surprised when I opened the door to see Will, Chester and Elliott standing in a line. Will handed me a bouquet of red roses, then stepped to the side for me to accept a box from Chester, which I could already tell contained chocolate. Finally Elliott presented me with the end of a black ribbon. I took it from her and began following it down the hall, with the three of them shadowing me a little ways behind.

I emerged onto the terrace, where a small circular table was set with burning candles and champagne resting in ice. Drake was rearranging one of the napkins. "What's the occasion?"

He turned to look at me. "I decided we were long overdue for a romantic evening for two."

I glanced down at my baggy jeans and t-shirt. "I'm not really dressed for it, am I?" I pointed out.

Drake took my hand and led me toward the table. "Nonsense. You look fantastic." He pulled out my chair and I sat down.

"So you roped the kids into helping you, I see?"

"Nothing wrong with that, is there?"

"Flowers and chocolate?" I asked.

He offered an apologetic grin. "I acted on a bit of a whim." He confessed. "Didn't have much time to think of something more intelligent than the usual Topsoiler amorous offerings."

I glanced down at the steak on my plate.

"Hope you like it medium. Stubborn mule refused to let me help."

"You mean your father?" I asked with a smile.

Drake sat down across from me. "He's slightly overprotective of his kitchen."

He put a hand on my waist and twined his fingers with mine as I laid my left hand on his shoulder. There was no music, but who needed it when we had each other? I leaned my forehead against his. A quiet sigh escaped his lips. I laid my cheek on his shoulder, rubbing my palm across his back as we slowly swayed back and forth.

I had never been in love, but I was fast developing a taste for it.

The moon provided just enough light to bathe the scene in a romantic ambiance. I felt his heart, beating just out of sync with mine. I couldn't get close enough to him as we held each other tightly.

"Oh, my dearest Mack." He murmured, pulling away just enough so he could look down at me. "I love you."

I closed my eyes as he kissed my forehead. Then I opened them just a crack and noticed the three silhouettes at the window. "We have an audience." I said quietly.

"Really?"

"Mmm." I leaned against him again, feeling his cheek as it rubbed against mine, his breath on my neck. Why couldn't things be as simple as this? Two people in love, free to live together forever without a second thought to the world. But we weren't just two people. I was Styx…a female Styx no less. My species was bent on destroying his species, and yet we found ourselves here. Our relationship was the forbidden bridge linking our people together.

Both of us jumped as music began playing from a corner of the terrace. "That supposed to be a hint?" I murmured to Drake.

He just laughed and spun me around before pulling me back into his arms, leaning his forehead against mine. I grinned, letting him guide me through several improvised steps as we moved across the terrace. I turned to face the shadows. "Come on out, you three."

Elliott, Chester, and Will all embarrassedly edged into the light. I winked at Chester as Drake leaned forward and gently bit my neck. "Aren't you irascible?" I laughed. "Normally that's a Styx trait."

Chester took a deep breath and grabbed Elliott by the hand, pulling her over to stand beside Drake and I.

"Hey!" Will protested.

To everyone's surprise, Celia emerged from in the house and seized hold of her son's hand. "Let's show them, Will!"

"Has everyone been watching us?" Drake said teasingly.

"Last couple standing gets a dunk in the lake!" Elliott proposed.

Will looked flabbergasted. "That's not much of an incentive, is it?"

"Why not?" I laughed as Drake swung me around by the waist. None of us was very good dancers. There wasn't much time to fit dancing into life as a Limiter. I swapped Celia partners and dragged Will across the terrace. We both did our best not to trip over one another's feet.

I was aware of Drake watching me as he guided Celia around in a circle around the terrace. Finally he led her over by the arm and tapped a breathless Will on the shoulder. "I think you've got my girl, there."

Before we realized, Drake and I were the last ones still dancing. He looked at me in mock concern. "You know what this means?"

"What?"

"We'd better head for the hills." He suddenly grabbed my hand and sprinted away from the terrace, across the lawns and toward a grove of trees to the west of the lake. I heard Elliott shouting playfully, "You cheats!" as we fled the scene.

"I want you to be the last thing I see when I close my eyes, and I want to wake up next to you every morning." Drake gently traced a finger down my cheek.

I closed my eyes as he held me closer, listening to the sound of the wind through the grass and the water at the lakeshore a short ways away. Suddenly I swung my leg over him so I was straddling his hips. My hair fell down from where it was tucked behind my ear as I leaned over him, and he gently brushed it back into place.

"Are we going to do this here? Now?"

"Why not?" I whispered. "If not here, then where? If not now, then when? Why not just do it while we've got the chance?"

He leaned up and kissed me gently. "Let's do it better than the first time, shall we?"

I took his hand and dragged him down the hallway. We reached our room, but I shoved him against the wall, kissing him hard. He chuckled. "My my, once you get going, you _really_ get going."

I pushed the aviator's jacket from his shoulders, dropping it on the floor, when suddenly we turned to see the three kids standing down the hall.

"Shouldn't you three be in bed?" Drake asked casually. He leaned down to kiss me, whilst pulling my shirt up halfway, exposing my stomach and ribs.

Will, Chester, and Elliott all gasped in unison.

"Oh, man!" Chester exclaimed.

Drake pulled the t-shirt off all the way and lifted me in his arms. I began on the buttons of his shirt, and he backed into the room, winking at the kids who just stared at us, mouths hanging open in shock as they looked on dumbfoundedly.

Kicking the door shut behind us, Drake stepped toward the bed at the center of the room.

"Congratulations."

"For what?" He asked.

"I think you just scarred my niece and those two boys beyond repair."

He shrugged. "They'll get over it."

"Yes, after listening all night at the keyhole."

Drake had straddled me against the mattress, and we both glanced over at the door across the room. Then suddenly he flung his head back and let loose something between a drawn out grunt and an animalistic howl.

I half screamed, half laughed in surprise. "Shh!"

"What's the matter Mackey?" He said teasingly.

I looked at him. "I've never seen you so aroused."

"That's because I've never _been_ so aroused." He leaned over, his lips and tongue caressing my neck as he whispered into my ear, "I love you, Mack."

Suddenly someone pounded on the bedroom door. Drake and I started.

"Everything alright in there?" Parry's voice boomed.

Drake swore and stood up, yanking the sheets from the bed and wrapping them about his waist. I snatched up the blanket, clutching it near my collarbone to cover myself. Drake pulled open the door and his father shoved past him into the room.

"I heard someone shouting abo-" Parry trailed off as he looked between Drake with the sheet, to the clothes discarded on the floor, and finally at me as I self-consciously adjusted the blanket. "Oh. Ohooh." He began tugging at his beard. "I see. Didn't think you were into that."

Drake snorted. "Yes, dad."

"Was it fun?"

Drake put his hand to his forehead, then hurriedly hoisted the sheet higher on his hips. "Let's talk about it another time, shall we?"

Parry looked at me again, raising an eyebrow. "Indeed." He said as his son ushered him back out the door. "Well, er, breakfast's at six, bright and early."

"It always is." Drake nodded, speaking as he shut the door. "Thanks for the concern, but you needn't worry."

"Yes." The older man continued his flabbergasted mumbling.

"_Good night_, Parry."

Drake settled beside me again, sighing in frustration.

I contemplated my fingernails. "Were you really a virgin before we had that fling in Eddie's flat?"

He sighed. "Yes. I was really a thirty-seven year old virgin."

We sat in silence for a few moments.

"And what about you?" He asked.

"Sadly no. I haven't been a virgin for twelve years."

He looked surprised. "Really? What happened?"

I craned my neck to look up at him. "Are you sure you really want to know?"

"Well, don't stop now. You've piqued my curiosity."

I took a deep breath. "When I was sixteen years old, around the time Elliott was born," I began casually, "I was involved in an intimate relationship, which some topsoilers might have considered morally wrong. I told you I was close with my brother, though I never told you just how close."

Drake pulled away slightly. "_Eddie_?" He exclaimed. "You were sleeping with your brother?"

"Yes." I said. "But obviously we're no longer involved like that. Haven't been for ten years."

He didn't say anything.

I laughed. "You can relax, darling, it was only one night." I leaned over and pressed my mouth against his lower abdomen, kissing up his stomach to his chest.

The next morning I woke to find Drake showered and dressed, and he waited for me to do the same before we went downstairs together. We walked into the dining room hand-in-hand. Drake grinned brightly at the others, who were all seated at the table. "Morning, all."

Will, Chester and Elliott just mumbled distractedly down at their plates.

I sat next to Elliott, and I noticed my niece shifted uncomfortably, exchanging looks with the boys.

"Tea, darling?"

I looked up at Drake. "Yes, please."

"Everyone sleep well?" Drake inquired.

It was Mr. Rawls who answered, he being blissfully unaware of the goings-on between Drake and I. "Yes, quite."

Drake beamed. "Excellent. I know I did." He bent to kiss me before sitting down at my side. Parry strode into the room and tipped a helping of bacon and fried sausages onto my plate, then set the dish down on the table. He then proceeded to pile my plate with eggs, fried bread, and baked beans, his gaze never wavering from mine.

"If you're looking to spoil my girl's figure, dad, I think you're on the right track." Drake said.

"Hmm? Oh, yes!" Parry seemed to notice what he was doing and hurriedly set the dish on the table and retreated to the kitchen.

"It's raining out there." I said, nodding at the window.

Drake inclined his head to listen to the incessant sound of water droplets. "I'll say, it is. It's been years since I danced in the rain. I did it as a young boy with my mother, before she died. She'd put on a special dress and go barefoot."

"I've been caught in a downpour of sulfur rain in the Deeps. Can't say I was ever gripped by the impulse to dance in it." I admitted. "Much less barefoot."

He chuckled. "Now's your chance."

"And would you do it with me?" I said.

Drake opened his mouth to answer when we heard Parry shouting urgently from downstairs and we tore off down the hall. I ran into the drawing room behind Drake and came to stand behind him, looping my arms under his and leaning against his back as I looked past his shoulder at the television.

Drake stepped back from the television and pulled me a little closer. "Bastards." I whispered in disbelief.

The newscaster continued. "This individual is believed to be behind the group that is mounting the attacks, and the police have gone as far to say he's the 'brains' of the organization. Going under the assumed name of 'Drake,' he's thought to still be in the country, and a national manhunt to find him is being initiated by regional police forces."

"Classic maneuver-only to be expected," Parry said gruffly. "The Styx are making it difficult for you to move around."

Drake nodded. "Guess I won't be the one going down to the shops from now on."

I pulled out of his grasp and stalked out of the drawing room, retreating to mine and Drake's room upstairs. "Mack?" I heard him call after me as I went. I sank onto the mattress, listening to the clunk of boots on the floor as he came down the hallway. The door swung open. "Mack?" He said again.

I clenched my hands into fists and glared at my lap. Drake sat next to me. I suddenly turned and buried my face in his neck, trying not to cry and failing in epic proportions.

"I..._hate_...them." I growled, enunciating each word by pounding my fist against his chest. "Those little Rebecca brats, their vile grandfather, every last one of them. _I hate them_."

Drake put his arms around me and held me close.


	11. Chapter 11

**Spiral**

"I'll be back, darling. Just need a moment."

"Sure."

I walked into the ladies' lavatories and locked one of the stalls, then slowly pulled the digital home pregnancy test from my jacket pocket.

I waited with bated breath, leaning against the stall as I tried to be patient. After a few minutes I risked a peek at the stick and nearly dropped it. It was impossible to misread the YES beside a plus sign. I held the test to my chest and tried to regain control of my breathing, laughing and sobbing at the same time. In a way I had hoped it wasn't true. How selfish was I to bring a child into the world when circumstances were as tumultuous as they were?

Finally I checked to make sure my eyes weren't red from crying, and walked out of the lavatory. I glimpsed him leaning against the railing to the Underground and could barely resist the urge to run over and fling my arms around him. But something kept me from telling him. I was aware of the pregnancy test in my jacket, knocking against my leg as I walked, and knew this just wasn't the time. Even so, it was impossible to keep the broad grin off my face, which Drake noticed straight off.

"What's got you so happy?" He asked as I came to stand beside him.

I shrugged. "It's amazing what difference a trip to the loo can make."

We made our way back to the car. I glanced up at Drake. Just after we had arrived in London, following the announcement on the news, he had completely shaved his head, and he'd reduced his beard to a mustache and goatee. I still wasn't happy with the new look, but as long as it kept people from matching his face to the one on the news…

I glanced down at the cellphone, propping my feet up on the dashboard. "It's your father again."

Drake rolled his eyes. "This is worse than when I went off to school."

I chuckled quietly, cracking the window a few inches and leaned back in my seat as the air blew into my face. I subconsciously reached my hand into my jacket pocket and curled my fingers around the positive test. Despite the increasing threat presented by the Styx, it would be a lie to say I hadn't enjoyed the last month. Just the two of us working together. It was selfish, but I hadn't missed the chaotic disorder around Parry's estate with the three kids, Celia and Mr. Rawls all cooped up there together, not to mention two fully grown Hunters. All the rumpus of the kids wanting me to teach them how to play soldier. I was flattered that they admired me so much, but there was a part of me that was hesitant to teach them because I was still hoping there could be an outcome where they wouldn't have to fight.

But I very much doubted it.

Sure, they had each had their share of difficult circumstances, but as a Limiter I was all too familiar with the Styx's brutal techniques, having had my own fair share of calling the shots. They had no idea what they were getting themselves into…not even Drake.

And now that this had happened…once again I gripped the pregnancy test…now that _this_ had happened…I took a shuddering breath and glanced over at Drake. True, the fact that I was pregnant terrified me. But there was no other baby I'd rather carry than his.

His face was strained, worried, but he smiled as he noticed me looking. "What?"

I shook my head. "Nothing."

"We'll be at the safe house in a little while, but I won't be offended if you nod off." He murmured.

"No, I couldn't." I said. But in a few moments I took him up on his offer and dozed off, my head lolling against his shoulder. When I woke a while later, I was in Drake's arms as he strode across the road to a neglected flat.

Drake walked out of the gent's room wearing a black combat jacket and trousers, and strange boot-like shoes he called 'Doc Martens' on his feet. "Huh?" He turned full circle for me to see. "What do you think?"

I pursed my lips as I looked him over. When I didn't respond immediately he said, "Come on, Mack, throw me a bone. Give me _something_."

"The clothes I like." I finally answered. "But I want the hair back after we're through with this."

"So you've told me…" He pretended to count on his fingers. "Ten times, now?" He rolled his eyes. "I promise, you'll get the hair back."

"Good." I kissed him quickly. "Now..._my turn_." I picked up my shopping bags and walked into the ladies' room.

"Don't keep me waiting." He called after me.

I walked out half an hour later wearing black skinny jeans, knee-high black leather combat boots with ridiculously tall soles and even taller heels, and a black tank top, over which I'd draped a long leather jacket studded with metal spikes. A broad belt with a huge screaming silver skull for a buckle hung around my hips. My hair I'd assaulted with a bottle of tight-hold gel, shaping the straight shoulder-length black locks into a bizarre spiky fauxhawk. Thick mascara and eyeliner, black lipstick, I'd even fastened a fake piercing on the corner of my bottom lip. My skin was so white already it hadn't needed any attention.

Drake whistled. "Shoot me now." He said.

"I could if I wanted to." I remarked, shoving the shopping bag and cosmetics into a nearby garbage bin.

Drake put an arm around my waist and we walked away, making for the market at Camden Lock. "If we're not careful, we'll start a riot all by ourselves."

I laughed. "When's your friend supposed to get here?"

"Not for an hour or so."

I looked around at the stores, choosing a shadowy spot between two Victorian buildings, and reclined myself against a pitted brick wall, bending one leg to prop it against the brickwork. A group of similarly dressed teenagers stood not far away, the smoke from their joints curling up into the late evening sky in gray tendrils. A few of them spotted me and let out several piercing wolf whistles.

"Hey baby! Whattaya say we ditch the relic and share a drink?"

From the sound of his slurred voice I could tell he'd shared a few already.

Drake turned in their direction, bristling with hostility, but I caught his jacket collar and pulled him close. "Ignore them." I whispered before I pulled him into a vehement kiss.

One of the younger men let out a howl like a young wolf in heat, however, Drake wasn't to be distracted now that he'd gotten started. I laid my hand on the back of his head as he lapsed into a session of fervent necking. I twisted my head around to make it look like I was returning the favor, though only partially doing so while keeping an eye on the unruly kids as they jeered and made obscene gestures in our direction. I had gotten used to wearing melodramatic apparel over the past month. I hadn't yet grown accustomed to the attention dished out from similarly dressed men who didn't know how to handle the presence of a fully grown Styx female.

Then I noticed the man who was walking down the road between the shops. He wore a business suit and glasses, looking very professional compared to the punks inhabiting the street. "Drake." I murmured. "Someone's coming."

Drake pulled away, but didn't look at the street. Instead he laid his hands on my hips and looked at me. "Describe him."

"Suit and tie. Glasses." I said.

Drake grinned. "Charlie." He said. "Okay, Mack, swap me places."

He took my place leaning against the wall and I came around to stand in front of him with my back to the street. "Might want to keep up the show, though." He said. "Entertain the rowdy hoodlums."

I complied, putting my arms around his neck and leaning in so my stomach was pressed against his and it looked like I was still snogging him. "We should do this more often." I said teasingly.

"What, dress like emos, or find a dark alley for canoodling?"

"How about both?"

The man stopped at the canal bridge, pausing for a cluster of Australian tourists to pass. Then he pulled out a cellphone and put it to his ear. "Call that a disguise?" He chuckled. "You're far too old to pull off the Goth look."

Drake laughed. "Maybe, but you know they're called emos these days. Anyway, I'm still a big fan of The Cure."

"Who's your friend?" The man asked.

"A friend." Drake responded simply.

The man adopted a serious expression. "Thought you might be in touch."


	12. Chapter 12

I looked over at Drake as we mounted the steps. "Hold up." I said as he reached for the doors.

"What is it?"

I licked my thumb and rubbed at a smudge of black on his cheek. "You snogged me before my lipstick was dry." I said in mock disbelief, as if he'd performed an injustice by doing so.

"As I recall, _you _snogged me before it was dry." He said.

The black splotch smeared even more at my attempts, so I sucked on the corner of my shirt and cleaned it off with that. "There." I announced when I was satisfied the blotch was gone.

Drake threw open the doors and swept his arm toward the house's interior. "Shall we?"

I rather liked the way my boots sounded on the black-and-white marble floor, the echoes reaching up to the ceiling. I twined my fingers with Drake's, basking in the brief moment of happiness I felt at the prospect of having him with me.

"Whatever they're up to, they can't be allowed to get away with it." I heard Celia's voice as we walked toward the study.

"Precisely," Parry replied. "And if not us, who's going to stop them?" Then he looked up to where Drake and I stood in the doorway. "You made it up here in good time."

Drake tightened his grip on my hand and walked into the room.

"Whoa." Chester breathed.

"Who's going to stop them?" Drake repeated his father's question. "_We _bloody well are."

Elliott ran forward and hugged him. Then she stepped back to look him over. "You look like a real renegade now. A mean and nasty one at that."

Drake chuckled. "But look at you! Quite the young lady!"

Will and Chester were regarding my getup, their mouths hanging open in awe. Elliott hugged me next. "_Auntie_?" She asked, peering at me cautiously. "I hardly recognize you!"

"Right back at you!" I laughed, glancing over her red dress and her hair which was wound in a chignon at the base of her neck.

She examined my hair, testing the tips of the gel hardened spikes with her fingers. "Best not be butting heads." She joked.

"Nice boots." Chester said, though he was looking at my mouth. I remembered the fake piercing.

"Oh. S'pose I can take this silly old thing out, now." I hastily removed the silver ring.

I woke up in the night with a dull ache in my upper back. I rubbed at my shoulder blades and shuddered at the wetness beneath my fingers. Drake stirred beside me, and inspected the red smeared sheets with perplexity before his eyes fell on my back.

"Mack?" He wondered anxiously. "Mack, you're bleeding!"

"I know." I said, grabbing his arm to stop him going after a Medikit. "Don't worry, it's normal. For Styx women, at least."

His eyes widened in understanding as he watched me fitting a tea-towel beneath my tank-top to cover the openings in my shoulder blades. "You mean you're...you're..."

"Yes, that's it exactly." I said. I didn't want to tell him anything further. The prospect of the Phase terrified me, no need to get him worried as well. "Puberty." I assured him. "Nothing more than that."

He looked doubtful.

I put a hand on his chest and pushed him back down. "Go back to sleep."

"Puberty." He repeated with a slight hoarseness in his voice.

"That's right." I whispered, kissing him gently. My nose rubbed against the side of his face as I snuggled closer to him. "Just puberty."

"I wonder if you could have a look at those tapes from Danforth's with Elliott?"

"Sure." I said. "I'll get to it first thing."

I glanced over at Elliott. "Hear anything worthwhile?"

She shook her head.

"How's it going?" Drake asked as he strode into the room.

I shrugged at him, my face still focused on the monitor. "We're just coming to the end of Chester's. Most of it's just rubbish. There's the odd phrase but none of it makes much sense. Although you _did_ say something rather interesting during your session."

"Really?" Drake sat down beside me. "Like what?"

"'Yes, and they went down very well, too.' It's something Wellington said after hearing a comment on how well the French cavalry had come up at Waterloo. Eddie often used to say it to me when I was a child. I should have known he'd use something to that effect as a trigger phrase."

"Bit of a mouthful, isn't it?"

"In English, yes. In Styx, not quite so much."

We all went back to staring at the screen when suddenly Elliott and I sat bolt upright. "Did you hear that?" I asked.

"Yes, hurry turn it back!" She exclaimed.

We rewound the tape and I hurriedly scrawled something on my notepad and handed it to Drake. He stared down at the note and then looked up to exchange worried glances with me and Elliott.

I glared at him. I couldn't understand it, why I was suddenly filled with so much hate toward him. So much I wanted to-

"Mack?" Someone snapped their fingers in my face. "Mack..."

I looked down at my mug of coffee, my fingers gripping the handle in a viselike grip. Then I looked around at the others in the room, nearly all of whom were giving me odd looks.

"You alright, love?" Drake wondered as he moved across the room to stand in front of me, putting his hands on my shoulders. I stiffened at his touch.

I shook my head fiercely. "I'm fine." I eventually said. "Just fine."

I moved like an automaton throughout the day, waging an internal struggle with another part of me, something deep-seated and resentful. Something that felt so natural I didn't question its presence. I hated Drake. That was how it had always been. And now I was going to kill him.

My rifle was shut in its case, propped in the corner, and it would take too long to get to it. I found his hunting knife, deftly slipping it up through the sheets with my foot before I curled my fingers around the handle. Just a quick thrust to the throat. I shook my head. _What?_ I looked down at the knife in my hand and dropped it. "What am I doing?"

But when he came out of the bathroom, once again I felt that overwhelming hateful urge, and the only way to satisfy it was if I left him bleeding on the floor. It was like I knew what I was thinking was wrong, but it felt so _right_! It was so easy to go along with the impulses. I seized the knife again and whirled on him.

"Whoa!" Drake put his hands up. "Mack what are you doing? Put the knife down."

I thrust at him, and he caught my knife arm and twisted my wrist so the knife only grazed his ear. I wriggled out of his grasp and backed away, circling him like a ravenous wolf.

"Mack, listen to me." He spoke gently. "You don't know what you're doing."

But I did. That was what scared me. And I wanted to do it so badly...I barreled into him and we went through the open door and into the hall. We rolled a few times, but Drake came out on top because of his heavier weight. He pinned my arms down. I screamed angrily, baring my teeth at him and struggling wildly.

"Stay in your rooms!" Drake yelled. I could just see the kids peering out of their doorways in curiosity, with Mr. Rawls and Celia showing their faces further down the hall.

I finally tucked my knees in and kicked him in the gut. The air came out of his lungs in an _oomf_, giving me a long enough delay to wriggle out of his grasp. I knocked him to the floor with a quick sweep of my leg and brought the knife down. Drake just managed to catch my wrist, the point of the blade a mere centimeter at best from his throat.

"Come on, Mack. Snap out of it!" Drake growled. He reached his hand around and grabbed the nape of my neck, twisting my head to the side. I snarled and writhed against his grip. He jerked me to the side so I tumbled off of him and the knife went skidding across the hallway. I sprinted for it, but Drake sprinted for me, careening into me so we both crashed into the wall.

"What the bloody dickens is going on up here?" Parry roared as he ran toward us. I fought tooth and claw as Drake dragged me into the hallway. Parry went to help his son.

"Will, fetch me a Purger. _Now_!"

The boy went to do as he was told. Drake wrapped his arms around me from behind so my arms were held against my body, and I continued to kick and squirm as he hauled me back into the room, trying to throw my head back hard enough to hit his face. When Will returned, I thrashed so wildly Drake had to pin me down on the bed, straddling me with his entire body, his legs hooked around mine in a scissors grip while he held my arms behind my back. I growled at him, my whole body bucking as I struggled to throw him off. I screamed in anger, howling, shrieking. Parry took the device from the boy, who retreated a few paces to watch the scene from the doorway with the others. I craned my neck to get away from the Purger, but Parry grabbed my head and, positioning the device over my eyes, he turned it on.

My body went taut as the purple light flooded my vision. I screamed, I jerked, anything to get away from the pain. I spat out several backwards sentences in the Styx tongue, and then suddenly it was over. Parry removed the Purger, but Drake didn't let me go quite yet. My chest heaved as I took several deep breaths.

"Mack?" Drake asked quietly. He gently released my arms and sat up. I looked at him.

"I'm sorry!" I sobbed.

He pulled me into his arms as I cried into his chest, my tears trickling down his bare skin.

"Shh." He whispered soothingly. "Shh. It's alright, Mack. It wasn't your fault."

Since there was no chance of me getting any sleep that night, Drake carried me downstairs and set me down on the sofa. He tucked a blanket around me and then went off to make tea. Parry sat down across from me. "How do you feel?" He wondered.

"Better." I whispered. "How could I not know I'd been Darklit?"

Parry shook his head. "I'm sure they can do that, you know? Was there ever a time in the last couple of months when you and Drake were separated?"

I shrugged. "They could have got to me whether it was in a café or when I went into a restroom." I pointed out. "But even if that were the case a single Darklight session wouldn't be enough to evoke a response as severe as the one I had. It would take months of almost daily sessions. Unless they've somehow configured their technology to deliver a more potent stream of manipulating waves."

Drake walked into the room with a tray and the teapot. He passed a cup to me before pouring some for his father and himself. "Here you are, love."

I took the offered mug and clasped it in my hands, feeling the warmth seep through the earthenware and into my fingers. Drake sat down beside me, and I leaned my head against his shoulder, closing my eyes and listening to the fire crackling in the hearth.

"What about the Styx you mentioned before, her brother, Eddie?" Parry posed to Drake. "Could he have done this as an 'in-your-face' safeguard in the event you ever crossed him?"

I laughed. "Although he and Drake might not have seen eye to eye on everything, I very much doubt he wanted him dead." I said. "Were that the case, he wouldn't have bothered going to all the trouble of Darklighting me either. Despite what you might think about my people, Eddie is still my brother; we grew up with a sibling bond more reminiscent of your Topsoil families. He wouldn't do something like this."

Drake, Parry and I weren't the only ones with insomnia that night. The other adults joined us shortly after I had got settled down, and within the next hour, Will, Chester and Elliott all tiptoed down the stairs into the room.

"I'm sorry, did we wake you?" Parry asked, though he knew this wasn't the case. We had been speaking in barely more than whispers, there was no way anyone upstairs could have heard us.

Elliott shook her head. "Is Auntie Mack alright?" She said, voicing the question I could see was hovering on the boys' tongues as well.

Drake put my tea down for me and pulled me further into his arms, as if he were cradling a frightened child. "She's had a rough night." He said.

The three youngsters sat down in armchairs, pulling them closer so as to be part of the circle.

"I was Darklit." I explained in a shaky voice. "Preprogrammed to kill Drake, probably after a certain amount of time had passed away, since no one here could have spoken the Styx trigger words."

I glanced up at Drake and noticed his eye was swollen where he'd caught an elbow during our brawl. "Darling, your eye."

"Hold on." Parry got to his feet and strode stiffly into the kitchen, and returned a moment later with a paper package. "Slap that on there." He said.

I pulled out the slab of meat and gently pressed it against Drake's face. He flinched, but reached up a hand to hold it there. None of us said much for a long time. The kids exchanged occasional glances, Parry tugged his beard and watched the fire, and Celia stared at me and Drake with her uncanny sightless eyes, stroking the top of Colly's head as the Hunter purred boisterously.


	13. Chapter 13

"Mack, I want you to go with Parry and the others."

"No." I said.

"Mack!"

I grabbed my Bergen and then picked up my long rifle. "Please, darling, you know it's no use arguing with a Styx."

He reached over and cupped his hand beneath my jaw so his thumb slid up beside my ear. "What would I do if I lost you?"

"I'm sure you'd think of something. Come on! We're wasting precious time carrying on like this." I turned to Elliott.

"I want to go with you, auntie." She said. I looked at the rifle in her hands and then at her face. She had grown so much in the last months that we were at eye level.

I smiled at her. "I'd enjoy the company, but I need you with the others. They need a good sharpshooter, right?"

She hung her head. "Right."

I shouldered my rifle and hugged her. "Good luck." Then I ran after Drake.

Dropping my kit into the front seat, I jumped into the jeep. Drake joined me a moment later, and I glanced up at him. "Oh darling, your poor eye." Although the swelling had gone down considerably, there was a black bruise the size of a golf ball over his eye.

He chuckled. "Just remind me never to sneak up on you." He began to start up the ignition, then hesitated.

"Go ahead." Sweeney said, pulling the flaps of his cap over his ears. "Vehicle electricals aren't too painful for me, although the current in the alternator puts my teeth on edge sometimes."

"No, I wasn't thinking about that." Drake said, shooting me a worried glance. "Why would Limiters speak during an operation? They're too adroit, too good for that."

I shrugged at him.

"Time to shine that searchlight around." He told Will. The jeep backed out of the shed, with Drake revving the engine loudly before peeling off down the gravel drive. I braced myself as the vehicle lurched violently, and I was nearly thrown into Drake's lap. "That should do it, Will! No way they'll have missed that."

"Lights out now, Will. Time to go dark." He flipped the lens of his headset down as I did the same, and shut down the jeep's headlights. "Silent running from here on in, chaps."

He drove a short way into the trees, and then lopped off some branches which he used to cover the vehicle. I was sweeping the area with my rifle scope. Drake laid a hand on my shoulder. "Anything?"

I shook my head. "Nothing."

"Nothing yet." Sweeney told Drake. He took out a long hunting knife.

"You don't carry a gun?" Will observed questioningly.

"Never been big on them." He flexed a large hand, his knuckles popping like firecrackers. "Prefer to work with these. I can be more creative with them. Ah, here we are." He held up a pair of grenades. "Fresh pineapples."

Drake took one from him. "Thanks."

The four of us took up positions on either side of the road. I continued to scan the perimeter, but still could see no sign of them. After an hour of continuing on like this I finally stood up in frustration.

"Mack?"

"They're Limiters, darling. They're not stupid." I said. "Keep a lookout, I'm going to do some scouting around."

"You think so, do you?"

"Yes, I do. And honestly, out of the four of us, there's none better suited to do it than me. They're Styx, dear, I know how they act." And without waiting for an answer, I gave him a quick kiss and slipped away through the grass, heading further away from the estate.

I sprinted forward at the sound of the explosion, and wasn't the least bit surprised to see my brother standing across the ford. "Oh, there he is!" I exclaimed.

Eddie and Drake turned and said in unison, "Mack?"

I waded into the ford and made my way toward the two men. Then I strode over and threw an arm around Eddie's neck. "What's up, big bro? Finally decided to call, did you?"

"How did you know it was me?"

"Who else would order each and every one of his Limiters go unarmed?" I suddenly stood up on tiptoe and kissed him on the mouth.

"Ugh!" I heard Will gasp in disgust.

Eddie held me there for a moment longer, his hand going up to my head to keep me from pulling back. When I stepped away from my brother, a knowing glance passed between us. He nodded, passing his tongue over his lips. "Perhaps we should talk in the back." He said to Drake, indicating the closest Hummer.

Drake glared at Eddie as he looped an arm around my waist and pulled me close. "What was that about?"

"Something tells me you'll know soon enough." I murmured somewhat distantly.

He glanced at the Limiters around us. "Any old boyfriends I should know about?"

I laughed quietly. "Styx don't work like that. No, you shouldn't encounter any competition from this lot."

"Yes...and no." Eddie said. "No, I didn't come for Elliott, but have you observed anything different about her? Any changes?"

Drake frowned. "Well, she's growing up fast." He said with confusion. "Same as any normal girl in her teens."

"Normal girl." Eddie whispered. He looked over at me. "What about you? You can feel it, can't you?"

I looked away from him. Drake put a hand on my knee. "Feel what?"

"I could taste it during our little salutation back there." He said. "I take it that was your meaning, unless of course you've finally decided your own people are more appealing than Topsoiler rejects?" He said jokingly.

I grinned. "Don't you wish?"

Eddie looked back at Drake. "Haven't you noticed anything about Mack's behavior?"

Drake thought for a moment. "The back aches..." He realized. "...the bleeding..."

"That's what I thought." Eddie said quietly. Then he suddenly locked eyes with Drake. "I'm going to tell you something that no human has ever heard before. It will explain why my people have ramped up their operations here on the surface."

"Go on." Drake crossed his arms and leaned back. "I'm all ears."

"I need to tell you about..." Eddie faltered for a moment. "About _the Phase._"

"I've been fighting it." I said. "But I don't know how much longer I can keep it up."

"Not much longer." Eddie confirmed. "It's like the impractical idea that you can ignore growing up, and stay seventeen forever. Eventually it has to happen."

"By the way, Drake." Eddie gestured toward his eye. "What happened?"

Drake looked down at me. "It's a long story."

"I've got time."


	14. Chapter 15

"Getting a little jealous, are we?" I asked him teasingly.

"Yes." Drake admitted. "I mean, I know you're Styx and I understand wanting to be with your own people but…"

I shook my head. "Darling, you have nothing to worry about."

It hadn't been lost on Will how Eddie's men regarded their leader's sister: not with the same ascendancy they treated the other Styx women, but with the familiarity of greeting an old friend.

"You look different," Will suddenly blurted at me one day.

"What?" I turned to look at him. It sounded more like he was thinking aloud, because Will's eyes got wide as if his tongue had fired off without the go-ahead from his brain.

"I-I mean..." Will stuttered. Then he squared his shoulders. "You look different from the other Styx women. You act different."

"Will-" Drake moved as if to reprimand the boy, but I raised a hand to silence him.

"Let him say his piece." I said.

"You're a Limiter, aren't you?" Will said. "Your shoulders are broader, like you're used to carrying a pack, and you walk like military. You know your gun inside and out and can use it better than Elliott, and you do hand-to-hand combat like it's second nature."

"That wasn't what gave it away though, was it?" I guessed.

Will shook his head and pointed at Eddie's men. "They're not scared of you."

I laughed. "You have keen eyes, kid." I said. "Yes, I _was_ a Limiter. Some of these men served under me. In fact, I was part of the group that you and Chester saw in the Deeps before Drake found you. I took part in the order to exterminate the renegades in the Deeps."

Will was confused. "They didn't see us."

"Well, maybe the twelve you had your eyes on didn't see you, but the thirteenth one did. I was watching you from a stone outcrop through my scope. Could have shot you dead before you knew what had hit you."

"Then why didn't you?" Drake asked, rubbing the back of his head as he realized how close of a shave he'd had.

I shrugged. "I often ask myself that." Then I paused to grin up at Drake. "Maybe it's because I fell in love with a doddering old tosspot I helped my brother drag out of a pub in London Soho. But it's more likely it was because of Elliott."

"Elliott?" Will asked with some puzzlement.

"Me?" Elliott said.

"I knew my niece had run away from home, and I wanted to know if she was as hardy as her father. I volunteered for the renegade mission thinking I might catch sight of her, which I did."

"How?" Elliott blurted. "I mean, how did you know it was me?"

"You move like a Styx." I said. "And regardless of what you were wearing, I'd know that thin physique anywhere. I was about to call a warning to my men down with the Coprolites that I'd found the boys when I saw you and Drake sneak up on them. I followed you for two miles before I returned to my patrol."

Drake whistled. "Two miles? And we didn't hear you?"

"You saw me." I said.

Drake thought for a moment, then turned his wide eyes on me. "That was _you_?" He asked incredulously.

I nodded. "Then I followed you again when you went to get Will's brother out of the sugar trap." I looked back at Elliott. "You did a good job setting up those trips." I said.

Elliott gasped. "You were there?"

I chuckled. "I followed you the entire way back to your base, did a sloppy job of hiding myself, too."

"Elliott checks out. Now all that's left is to get you cleared for duty." Drake said.

"And let me guess, that's my straightjacket?" I pointed at the bundle tucked under his arm.

He passed the hospital gown to me. "Close enough."

I suddenly stopped walking, cracking my neck as the pain in my shoulders seemed to spread. Drake and Eddie noticed I was no longer with them, and turned to look back at me. Eddie laid a hand on my arm. "Hey."

My breathing went deep, as if the air had gotten thicker. I yanked out of my brother's grip. "Get away from me."

Both of them walked toward me.

"Stay away from me!" I screamed. I went down on all fours, chest heaving.

"Mack-" Drake moved forward again but I gestured violently at him to keep his distance.

"No! I don't want to hurt you! I won't hurt you! I can't." I bowed my head. "I can't." Suddenly my back arched in pain. I screamed again. Something powerful, yet terrible, yanked at my navel and burrowed into my brain. An overpowering instinct to reproduce and lay my eggs. It overshadowed any other thought in my mind. I was suddenly very aware of the organ rising out of my throat, and even more attuned in matters of what it was meant to do.

Eddie suddenly stepped forward. "Drake. I have an idea."

"What kind of an idea?"

"One that means we'll have to act fast." The Styx said. "_Very_ fast, if we want to stop this getting any further."

"Do it." I said as something other than drool dripped from my mouth. _Lubricant for the ovipositor_, I realized with a grimace. My self-control was fast losing its grip, giving way to the frightening animal instinct growing within me. "Do it!"

I shrieked as the skin on my back tore, and the insect legs extended, stretching slowly like the limbs of a newborn animal and dripping blood down my neck.

Eddie raised his gun without hesitation and shot a tranquilizer dart into my neck.

I reached a hand up and plucked it out, gazing at it for a moment before flinging it at the ground and leaping to my feet. Drake and Eddie sprinted for the door with me hot on their tails. _Warm bodies_. That was all I needed. Somewhere safe to lay my eggs. I collided with the door just before they slammed it shut, throwing my entire weight against the surface.

"Why didn't it work?" Drake shouted.

"Her metabolism's gotten underway!" Eddie yelled back. "Must be countering the effects of the tranquilizer."

Both men braced themselves against the door as I repeatedly rammed into it, shrieking at the top of my lungs. My insect legs rubbed together in a frenzy, creating a sound like a sinister cricket with a megaphone. I gave an almighty heave and threw the door open. Both of them staggered away, and I stalked into the room. My eyes went from one to the other, contemplating on who would be best to impregnate first.

Eddie pointed his gun at me and pulled the trigger. Then again, and again, and again. The dosage slowly took effect, not putting me out as it was meant to, but it at least slowed me down. I sat down in confusion, my eyes hazing over. Drake and Eddie approached me, hobbling my legs and winding cord around the insect legs.

The events following were shrouded in a foggy delirium. I remember being restrained to a bed, yanking at my bonds and thrashing as someone plunged a needle into my neck, effectively numbing my entire back.

I blinked slowly. The first thing I saw was a pair of blue eyes looking down at me with concern, but they brightened considerably as I groaned. "Easy, love." Drake said, putting a hand on my shoulder to stop me sitting up. "How do you feel?"

"Got a blinder of a headache." I rasped, and Drake laughed. "Hurts to swallow. What did you do?"

It was Eddie who answered. "We removed the extra appendages from your back, and the ovipositor from where it was emerging in your throat."

I looked over at my brother. He nodded to a tray, where a pair of shining black insect legs lay in a pool of blood. A slightly deflated tube lay beside them. I groped along the table until I found Drake's hand, locking my fingers between his.

"You stopped it."

"We stopped it." Drake bent over me and kissed my forehead. He made as if to straighten up, but I hurriedly put a hand behind his head to hold him there as I pressed my mouth against his. Eddie had to clear his throat several times before we finally broke apart.

"The instinct, however," my brother continued. "Is still present and accounted for. Can't remove that without performing a full scale dissection, and Drake wouldn't allow a single finger near that pretty head of yours."

Drake rolled his eyes. "Styx sarcasm at its finest."

"Which is why I would keep my distance for a while." Eddie said pointedly to Drake, but the man stayed where he was, holding my hand with a look in his eyes that said he had no intention of letting go.

"Hungry." I suddenly realized, as if as an afterthought. "In fact, _really_ hungry."

"I'll go and get you something." Drake offered.

Eddie followed him out. "Try not to eat anyone while we're gone." He said, half in jest half in complete solemnity, before shutting the door.


	15. Chapter 16

Drake dropped a handful of bulging paper bags. I breathed in the scent of fast-food that was curling from the folded tops and snatched one of the bags, pulling out a burger. Stripping the greasy wrappings, I took a huge mouthful and didn't bother to chew before swallowing.

"Eddie's coming with something 'more substantial'." Drake told me as he watched me eating.

"Whoa!" Will and Chester had walked into the room and took one look at the bags on the table and at me as I shoved half of a burger into my mouth. "Hungry much?"

I looked at them both, swallowing my mouthful and pausing in my feast to survey them both. Drake must have seen the look in my eyes because he motioned the two boys away. "You've no idea just how hungry." He said. "So I'd advise you keep your distance."

I picked up one of the cartons of fries and slid its contents into my mouth, chewing noisily with the most unladylike table manners. The food burned against my throat, compliments of the detached ovipositor, but I ate nonetheless. It frightened me how _good_ the boys suddenly looked to me. Like food. I turned away from them and shoved the last of my fourth burger into my mouth.

"How's Elliott?" I said as I paused my feasting to select and unwrap another sandwich.

The boys could only nod as they stared at me devouring the fast-food. Eddie walked into the room and laughed at my voracious appetite. He slid a cup across the table toward me. "Drink that."

I looked at the cup's viscid contents. "What is it?"

"Drink it." Eddie repeated. "Your metabolism just kicked into action, that's why you're so hungry."

I stuck an inquisitive finger into the thick fluid, dripping strands of the stuff in a sticky trail along the table. I licked the stuff from my finger. _Sugar_. A sweetness like nothing I had ever tasted erupted across my tongue. I forgot my hamburger and dove at the cup, lapping the contents into my mouth with my tongue with greedy slurping noises.

"What is it?" Drake wondered.

Eddie shrugged. "A simple sugar solution we developed long ago to keep our women going during the Phase. With their metabolism as high as it is, it literally devours every bit of fat on their bodies. Sugar, as you know, is a simple carbohydrate, which is why you can get what topsoilers call a 'sugar buzz' or 'high'. Your body processes it and puts it to use much faster."

"It's just sugar?"

"Absolutely." He cleared his throat. "Mack!"

I had been hunting through the empty bags, but looked up at him, and wiped a string of the sugar solution from my chin. I tried to regain my composure, and sat up straight in my chair.

"I have something for you."

I followed him down the hall where he showed me into a smaller room. There was a live deer inside, still groggy as it pulled out of the induced sleep brought on by Eddie's tranquilizer dart. I eyed the prey rapaciously. A large vat of the sugar solution had been supplied in the corner of the room. Eddie patted my back and pushed me into the room. "Go crazy." He said, before he shut the door.

Five hours later I felt my metabolic processes slowing down. I picked a splinter of bone out of my tooth and licked a drop of sticky sugar solution from my thumb. I situated my clothes and hair, then strode over to the door and gave it several sharp raps with my knuckles. "I'm full!" I announced.

Eddie pulled the door open. "Glad to hear it."

It would appear everyone had gathered around the door to listen to the proceedings. Drake, Parry, Will and his mother, Chester and his parents, Danforth, even old Sergeant Finch, were all congregated outside. Elliott stood next to her father and gawped at me. "Auntie!"

I noticed the streak of blood on my shirt and shrugged. The only person whose jaw wasn't hanging open was Eddie's. He chuckled. "Enjoy yourself?"

I smiled. "Immensely."

"Then that's settled. Whenever the Phase seems to be affecting you, we'll put you in there with some live prey and plenty of solution." He said.

"What about the eggs?" I asked.

Drake looked at me in terror. "Eggs?"

"If they don't get planted I'm going to start...you know..." I mimed throwing up.

"You're _what_?" Drake started.

Eddie shook his head. "No need to worry about those. If they don't get planted in time, your body will break most of them down naturally. You shouldn't be producing any more, so don't expect any abdominal distension. And if you do, as you say..." He mimicked my gesticulation of vomiting. "We'll burn them. Simple as that."

"You're sure?" I said.

"Don't worry, I did my homework."

Will peered into the room behind me. "You ate that _whole_ deer?" He asked me, looking over my wiry frame in disbelief. "Even the bones?"

I ran my tongue along my teeth and lips in response, laughing at the horrified look Chester had adopted. "Scram you Peeping Toms." I said. "I need a shower."

I looked over at Elliott as I walked past. "How're the shoulders?"

She shrugged and winced, but smiled. "Okay, I guess. And you?"

"Just fine." I ruffled her hair and walked away to my room. I stood in front of the bathroom mirror, gently pulling my shirt off and dropping it onto the linoleum floor as I surveyed my reflection.

My increased metabolic rates had burned off nearly every fat cell in my body, leaving behind lean muscle and bone. Angular cheekbones protruded from my narrow face, my collarbones jutted out in protruding lines below my neck, I passed my hand over my ribs, which were clearly defined under my skin. My waistline had shrunk by several inches, my hips were bony protrusions above the waistband of my trousers. Luckily, despite being seven weeks pregnant, my stomach was as flat as could be. I still wasn't ready to break the news to Drake. I slipped a hand across my flat abdomen, feeling the muscles in my arms as they contracted and pulled against each other, rubbing against the bones and joints with the precision of a well-oiled machine.

"You know, you look great."

I turned with a start to see Drake leaned against the bathroom doorway, arms folded across his chest. "That's some trick, sneaking up on a Styx." I said. I looked down at my arm, flexing my sinewy biceps, and winked at him.

"How are you doing?" He asked.

I shrugged my bony shoulders, and turned to snarl at my reflection in the mirror. My incisors were relatively normal in appearance, but when I ran my tongue along them I felt the razor sharp ends, and my canine teeth looked prominent and far more lethal. I felt the bandage on my back. "Have a look at that, would you?"

He strode over, and undid my bra-strap so he could get at the dressing underneath. He pulled the gauze away with care, surveying the incisions. "Everything looks to be in order. In fact, I'd say you're about ready to go without a bandage from here. You're healing up lots faster than I thought." He redid my bra and put his arms over my shoulders, resting his chin on my head. I looked down at my bony hand, and Drake took it in his. "Why didn't you tell me about the Phase?" He murmured.

I sighed. "Because I didn't want you to worry. You had enough on your plate without having to add my troubles to the mix. Elliott for one."

"I'm worried about her. This whole Phase thing has her down."

"I'll have a talk with her." I said. Then I noticed the way Drake's eyes got distant, his eyebrows creeping together as he frowned at the air in front of him. "What is it?"

"You were a Limiter?" He asked.

I nodded. "Yes. I was. Styx don't have traditional family units like topsoilers and colonists do. The children are taken at an early age and raised by personal guardians in private schools. Most of the Styx women are transplanted into Topsoil families at early ages, where they grow up and burrow into society like bloodthirsty ticks, sapping the attention of media, politics, take your pick. My father was a Limiter commander with a somewhat significant amount of influence in the Styx hierarchy. He knew just the right strings to pull, and how exactly to go about pulling them. My very existence was the result of an experiment of his: a female Styx, raised like a male. They wanted to see if it would affect the way I was accepted, compared to the authoritarian figures of other females. Eddie, as you call him, is ten years older than me, and my father made arrangements for us to be raised together, which resulted in an emotional connection you don't usually see in Styx families. I was nine years old when Eddie joined the Limiters. He was a bit of a role model for me. I wasn't exactly pampered, you see. Never had Topsoil men drooling over me, or cameras shoved in my face, or found myself looking at my face on every magazine stand in the country.

"When Eddie was nearing the age to join the Limiters, our guardian took it upon himself to show him the ropes. As our guardian taught Eddie the basics of a Limiter rifle, I was there as well, taking in every word he said. Eddie left to join the division, and since our Limiter guardian had his own duties to attend to, I was left to practice my shooting, my stealth...when I was seventeen I started to panic, thinking the Styx inner circle might bring their attention around to me to 'beat me into submission' if you will. So I ran away and became a Limiter by myself. I could pass for a male due to the years I'd spent doing my own personal training. I went six months before I was discovered, but my father still had some say in what went on upstairs. Along with that, Eddie had constructed a reputation during his time with the division that was stable enough to support the two of us. I was permitted to stay.

"And then Eddie's reputation came to a bitter end. He confessed he'd had a child with a Colonist, and was marked for it. '_Purity is sanctity'_." I quoted the _Book of Catastrophes_. "He was never the same again. We parted ways. I didn't see him for ten years. Ten long years. I was part of the guard with you during the final field test: when you slipped away from us...And then I was sent into the Deeps to where you had been hiding for years to purge the hundreds of renegades there."

I suddenly pulled away from him and covered my face with my hands. "I was there." I whispered. "I was _there_. I'm so sorry."

"Mack?"

I shuddered as that night in the Deeps came back to me in full. The heat on the Great Plain...pushing my men onward as we proceeded with a seemingly routine field test. My fellow Limiters with their harsh, jeering laughs...I had watched from the ranks as Drake was tortured. I'd pulled my mask off to see him more clearly. That bloody stake. And Drake's blue eyes searching through the surrounding Limiters before they fell on me. Those eyes that had tormented me in my dreams, the reason I made it a point to keep an eye on Drake during his time in the Deeps. "What do you mean you were there?"

"On the Great Plain, the week before the last test..." I said quietly. There was no need to go any further. Drake's eyes darkened as we both struggled with the nightmarish memories that were rapidly coming to the surface. I stepped away from him and retreated to the shower where I pulled the door shut and hastily turned on the water to cover the tears spilling down my cheeks. I stood in the steady cascade of warm water, closing my eyes as I slowly turned the temperature control lever from the intersecting red and blue lines, to the snowflake perched over a solid blue line. My skin stung under the onslaught of icy droplets, speedily growing numb with the frigid spray.

Suddenly I felt a hand on mine, gently twisting the lever back to the middle. The water returned to its original warmth. A pair of hands rested on my shoulders, and they turned me around so I was looking Drake in the eyes. I looked up at the water spilling from his brow, the rivulets trickling over the well-defined contouring of his muscular shoulders and sturdy chest. "I was there." I choked out.

Drake pushed my wet hair out of my face. "But you're _here_, now." He pulled me into a very long, very wet kiss.

My wet skin slipped against his as he pulled me closer to him, his arms wrapping around me in a secure hold as I kissed him harder, more insistently. My back met with the cold tile of the shower wall. I looked up at Drake. "Pass me the shampoo?"

He smiled and kissed my nose. "Sure thing, hon." Pumping a small amount of soap into his hand, he twirled his finger to indicate I ought to turn around, and gently massaged the stuff into my hair. I let it wash out, standing directly in the way of the nozzle so the soapy water trickled down my face and neck, carrying the accumulated sweat and grime with it.

Drake had pulled on his trousers, and he walked back into the bathroom. "Hey, you seen my shirt?"

I adopted an innocent look as I turned to face him, his red plaid button up draped over my shoulders. It was so large on me that it hung to my mid-thighs. "What, _this _shirt?"

He put his hands on his hips and laughed. "Yes, _that_ shirt."

I braced my hands against the wall, striking a pose, and shot him a provoking look. "Come and get it."

Drake chuckled as he hugged me close. I breathed in the masculine scent of body wash, cologne, aftershave, and pure Drake on his skin, felt the heat of the shower still coming off of his body. "Hold me." I murmured.

"I am." He pointed out.

"I've had better." I said tiredly.

"Is that right?" He said, and as if accepting a challenge, he put his arms around me and lifted me completely from the ground. He walked carefully over to our bed and gently laid me onto the covers before leaning over me. I ran my hand down his cheek, then his neck, chest, and finally down to his abdomen. I gently traced over one of the more prominent scars on his chest. His body shuddered slightly.

"You're so beautiful." He whispered.

I smiled. "Not in the eyes of the Styx."

"Screw the Styx." He said before he leaned forward and put his lips over mine in a solid kiss. Suddenly there arose a loud bleeping noise from Drake's jacket on the floor. He ignored it, but the bleeping grew insistent.

I sighed. "Your father wants you."

"Well my dad's going to have to learn how to wait." Drake growled, but he sat up and started pulling on his boots. He fetched another shirt from the closet and kissed me quickly as he buttoned up his collar before he walked out the door.


	16. Chapter 17

I shuffled the tray, holding it with one hand while I knocked on Elliott's door with the other.

"Go away." She said.

I pushed the door open anyway. Elliott was sitting on her bed, her back to the door. "I said go away, Will." She said, turning to look over her shoulder. She leapt to her feet. "Auntie!"

I hurriedly set the tray down before she careened into me like a cannonball, nearly knocking the air from my lungs. "Oof!" I grunted, returned the hug, and stepped back from her. Her Limiter rifle was laying across her pillow; she'd obviously been cleaning it, but she picked it up and propped it in the corner of the room. She'd been crying, I noted as I looked at her red eyes and the tracks down her cheeks. "How are you holding up?"

Elliott didn't meet my gaze. "Fine. Or as fine as you can when you're a _monster_."

"Hey, listen to me." I looked at her sternly, then my expression softened. "You're a beautiful young girl. _Girl_." I repeated. "What's in there," I gestured at her shoulders, "we can't help it. But what's in _there.._." I pointed at her chest. "That _can_ be helped. That's what sets you apart, makes you different from those egg-laying pretty-faced freaks."

Elliott smiled.

"There, now that's settled, what do you say we treat ourselves to a tea and have a good long chat, woman to woman?" I picked up the tray I'd brought with me and leapt onto Elliott's bed, sitting cross-legged on one end of the mattress.

"What are we going to talk about?" She clambered onto her bed to sit across from me and I set the tray between us.

"Whatever you want. Guns, clothes..." I raised an eyebrow at her in mock scandalousness. "_Men_."

She gasped and clapped a hand to her mouth to hide her smile. "Auntie!" She giggled, giving me a playful shove.

"That's what girls your age talk about." I reminded her as I filled her cup. "As well as girls my age. Careful, it's hot. Put another sugar in."

"Why?"

"It helps." I said, jerking my head toward my back. "It really does."

She stirred in her sugar and took a dainty sip of her tea.

"Now..." I said. "About men."

Elliott snorted. "Are we really going to talk about that?" She giggled.

"Why not?" I looked at her. "How are things with Will?"

She nibbled the edge of a biscuit and frowned. "I don't really know." She finally admitted. "I like him, but...with this new thing that's come up I feel like he, like _everyone_, thinks I'm going to turn into something terrible. I'm starting to think it myself."

"You won't." I said. "By the time your body's ready for it, the time for Phasing will be long past."

Elliott shrugged. "Hopefully." She cast an impish look at me over the top of her teacup. "You really like Drake, don't you?"

I gazed at the contents of my cup and sighed. "Mmmm, yeah. I really do." Then I tipped my head to one side and added, "Though I liked him better with hair."

Elliott laughed.

"Elliott...I wonder if I could confide in you?"

"Of course." She said confusedly.

"I, uh-" I laughed nervously. There was a rattling sound, and I looked down in surprise to see my hands shaking, sending tremors through the tea in my cup as it rattled against the saucer. "I haven't even told Drake." I confessed.

Elliott reached over to steady my hands, looking at me concernedly. "Auntie, what is it?"

"Well, I'm..." I drew in a quavering breath. "I'm pregnant." I announced.

The girl's black eyes widened. "Drake?"

I nodded. "Yes. Eddie doesn't know, I'm trusting you not to tell him, or Drake for that matter. I told Drake several months ago that I was going to have a baby, but I wasn't entirely truthful. I was hopeful, you see. Actually, I seduced him."

Elliott smirked. "And he ate it like mango out of your hands."

"Unfortunately I suffered a miscarriage and lost it after I was Darklit in the Hold. But now..."

"It's the real deal." Elliott finished.

I nodded.

"How far along are you?"

"Seven weeks. So far I've had relatively mild morning sickness, so he doesn't suspect anything." I raised my cup to my lips, struggling as the china shook in my still unsteady hands.

Elliott took the cup from me. "Here," she said, placing another lump of sugar in my tea. "It helps."

I laughed. "You're a fast learner."

"So, I'm going to have a..." She paused. "What would you call it? A _cousin_?"

"That's right."

She suddenly looked aghast. "Then Drake would be my uncle!"

We laughed together.

"Auntie?" She asked, almost cautiously. "Why not tell Drake?"

"Because, you know how he is. He'll do anything and everything in his power to keep me from going with you to disrupt the Phase." I told her. I looked over at the clock on the wall. "Sakes, look at the time!" I exclaimed. "You'd best get some shut-eye. You need your beauty sleep."

She winked back at me. "You, too."

I slipped off of her bed and stretched before picking up the tea tray and started for the door.

"Auntie Mack?"

"Hmm?" I turned back to her.

"Thank you." She smiled. "You're the only other person who knows what I'm going through right now. Thank you for understanding."

"No problem."

"And your secret's safe with me." Elliott added. "Thank you for confiding in me." She threw her arms around me in an affectionate hug. I did my best to return the gesture one-handedly. "Good night, auntie."

"Good night." I kissed the top of her head, which was difficult as she was close to passing me up in height, and walked out of the room as she got into her bed. "Sleep tight, don't let the cave cows bite, and all of that rubbish." I turned off the light, leaving the single bulb glowing above the drapes and canopy of her four-poster bed.

Drake was looking over his plans, which were laid out over the desks in the Hub. He glanced up at me as I walked in, then back down at the numerous sheets of paper, bracing his hands against one of the desks as he surveyed a map directly in front of him. "How'd it go?"

My jaws gaped in a yawn, and I stretched my arms above my head, making the bottom of my tank top lift and exposing my belly button. I didn't bother readjusting it. "Fine." I came to stand beside him.

"What'd you talk about?"

I shrugged. "Girl stuff."

"Girl stuff, huh? That sounds fishy."

I looked down at the mess of papers he was shuffling through. "What is all this?" I asked as I kneaded my knuckles up and down his back.

"I'm hoping it's our salvation." He said.

"Fascinating." I whispered. I moved around to stand behind him, sliding my hands up his back before I looped my arms around his middle, leaning my cheek against his back and listening to the air in his lungs as he breathed. "Want to come to bed?"

I heard him chuckle deep within his throat. "I will soon enough."

"No you won't." I said. "You'll pore over those blasted papers long into the night, and when you do drag yourself to bed, you'll barely get an hour of sleep."

"Speak for yourself." Drake said quietly. He was speaking about the countless hours of the night I spent with my eyes wide open, my thoughts going a hundred miles an hour. I had resorted to taking extensive walks through the Complex in the wee hours of the night with a cup of strong coffee clutched in my hands while Drake worked himself to death, both of us thinking in terror of what the future had in store if our resistance against the Styx failed. He had large bags under his eyes, proof of the long nights he spent perfecting and editing his plans with his father, Eddie, Danforth, Finch and Sweeney. I had offered to help them, but Drake wouldn't hear of it, so instead I roamed the dark halls. By now I knew my way around better than anyone else in the Complex.

Drake stood up straight. "Where's your blasted brother when I need him?"

"Hmm?" I mumbled tiredly.

The man gently pried my arms away and turned so he could face me. "You look exhausted."

"Have you looked in the mirror lately?" I asked him, brushing my hand down the side of his face. "Because you don't look much better off."

He bowed his head and closed his eyes, looking for all the world as if he'd nodded off on the spot. I leaned against his chest, and his arms automatically wrapped around me. We stood there holding one another for what felt like a lifetime...more even.

I heard him take in a deep breath. "Hair smells good." He mumbled.

I smiled. "Only because of the shampoo you got me."

His mouth shuddered as he attempted to stifle a cavernous yawn. "Come to bed." I repeated.

"Can't. Have to-"

"You'll be no good against the Styx if you're dead on your feet." I reprimanded him gently. "Three hours."

"Then the same goes for you." He said.

I nodded tiredly. "Whatever you say, dear."

We walked to our room, not bothering to turn on the light as we stepped inside. Rather, we blindly stepped across the floor until our knees bumped against the footboard, and from there we crawled onto the large mattress. Drake pulled me into his arms, our bodies curling together so I was tucked against his body like the adjoining piece of a jigsaw puzzle. I slipped into an uneasy sleep.

"What is it?" I asked.

He rested his elbows on his knees, running his fingers through his short hair. "I could have killed you." He said. "All those years down there in the Deeps, any one of those Limiter patrols could have been yours. I could have killed you."

I laughed and traced my fingers up his back. His skin broke out in involuntary goose bumps. "I was smarter than that." I reminded him. "Besides, most of the time I wasn't with a patrol, I was on my own. That gave me more time to follow you and Elliott. I appreciate what you did for her, you know?" I looped my arm in his and leaned my cheek against his scarred shoulder. "As does Eddie."

Drake shrugged. "You saw it?"

"Mmhmm." I mumbled. "I was on my way down to get her out of there when you showed up. Didn't know it was you at the time, but I figured she was in good hands, so I left it be. Besides, where else could I have taken her?" I pondered my fingers for a moment. "Do you remember the day you fended Tom Cox off of that woman in the Deeps, nearly two years before Will and Chester came to you?"

Drake placed his hand over mine so our fingers were aligned. "Yes." He looked at me. "That was you?"

I nodded. "Yes, that was me."

"I'm so sorry." He whispered. "If only I'd gotten there sooner."

I kissed his cheek. "But at least you got there."

"Should have killed him."

"He's dead now. No need to worry about it." I put my arms around his chest and gently pulled him back down, and he didn't resist.

"The renegade that helped me and Sarah to the Pore. That was you, too...wasn't it? You really get around."

"More than your guardian angel." I murmured.

Drake laughed. "You _were _my guardian angel."

"Aren't you a flatterer?"


	17. Chapter 18

"Just in case anyone has misgivings about the shot I'm giving all of you, I'll go first." Drake said. He pushed the device against his upper arm and pulled the trigger. "Didn't feel a thing." He said with a smile.

"But we've all had the vaccine for Dominion." Chester said. "So what's this for?"

Drake didn't answer him right away, turning to me next and pushing the tip of the mechanism against my arm. "See to the equipment in the guardrooms, would you? Make sure everyone has a set?"

"Sure. See you there."

I kissed his cheek and walked away as Drake turned to answer Chester. The party slowly came down to the entrance tunnel, where I handed them each a set of the fur-lined parkas and trousers. I attached my throat mike and put the plugs in my ears, then suited up like the rest of them. Drake and Eddie stood at the head of the group, and I joined them, elbow leaning on my hip as I pointed my gun toward the ceiling. Suddenly my stomach convulsed and I doubled over, my chest heaving in loud coughs.

"Mack?" Drake asked.

Something large was rising up in my throat, making my esophagus stretch and bulge. My mouth came open and a substantial amount of yellow fluid gushed out, along with a glistening cream-colored ovate object, which fell on the ground with a splat. It was roughly the size of a matchbox. The people who had clustered around me out of concern took a step backward, looking at the thing disgustedly. "What is that?" Stephanie asked.

"_That_ is a Styx egg pod." Eddie answered.

I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and promptly brought my foot down on the pod, crushing it violently beneath my boot. An amalgam of blood and fluid, and possibly fragile larva body parts, splattered out in a near perfect circle around my sole.

"But wasn't that your-?" Will started as he and everyone else gawped at my callousness.

"These things are _not_ my children." I growled dangerously.

Eddie smiled. "Technically, they are." He said quietly.

"Shut up."

Drake looked down at the ruined egg pod and said, "Didn't you say we should burn them?"

"Yes, we should." Eddie said. "Anyone got a light?"

I struck a match and dropped it onto the slimy puddle, which immediately burst into flames. "Let's get going." I said with an apathetic glance at the sizzling pod.

Drake and I followed at the rear of the group. I kept pace with him perfectly, but every so often he would turn his head to cast an anxious glance in my direction. I pretended not to notice, focusing on maintaining my footing as we descended the frozen slope. Twenty minutes in the ground began to level out beneath my feet. I was sweating profusely beneath the thick parka and trousers. Drake went to join his father in signaling the transport. The Chinook made a remarkably fast landing, and Drake motioned for everyone to board.

He spoke to Will and Chester as they were seated, then he sat down beside me. We buckled ourselves in, and I leaned back against the helicopter's wall.

"Hey!" Drake shouted. I looked at him and noticed his hand, which he held out to me. I took it, and he gave my fingers a comforting squeeze.

"Do you want to come with me?" Eddie asked his daughter.

"Okay." She said, going to stand with him beside the final crate of detectors. Then she paused. "Auntie!" She ran over to me, nearly bowling me over as she gave me a crushing hug. "Good luck."

"You too."

"Be careful." Her eyes flicked momentarily toward my midsection, then back at my face.

I laughed. "Don't you worry about us. Take care of yourself."

Elliott ran back to Eddie, and I waved at them before turning away to follow Drake.


	18. Chapter 19

The larva crept forward and gently nuzzled my leg, letting out pitiful whimpers. I felt a surge of compassion toward the creature, and suddenly overwhelmingly guilty that I was here to kill hundreds of children just like it. How could I do such a thing?

"Mack!" Drake hissed at me.

I stared at the Warrior larva a moment longer. Such feelings were instinct, but they didn't define who I was. I had my own baby, which hadn't been spawned from the egg factory inside of me. _Drake's baby._ That was where my maternal affections were most needed, not with these _things_.

With that thought in mind I raised my gun and shot the larva through the skull. An enraged scream sounded from behind and Drake and I spun around to find ourselves face to face with one of the Styx women.

"Back off from my children." She hissed. Drake seemed momentarily mesmerized by her, but I didn't hesitate as I raised my Browning Hi-Power and shot her between the eyes. She dropped to the ground. But the trouble wasn't over as a previously unseen female Styx dropped from the ceiling and tackled Drake to the ground. She raised her insect legs over him and shrieked as she prepared to slash them through his skull. I sprinted forward and barreled into her, wrenching her away from Drake as we rolled together on the ground. I disentangled myself from her grasp and stood up to face her, raising the gun I still held in my hands.

"Traitor!" The other woman screamed. She glared at me with her eyes glinting, like a vicious spider poised to attack. The insect legs raised above her shoulders only added to the appearance. "You should have joined your sisters here to-" I shot her in the knee, and she staggered, though it didn't seem to impede her. She lunged at me, and I shot her point blank in the other leg, her kneecap shattering as she gave a horrible angry scream. Fluid dripped from her mouth as she snarled, "You've betrayed your own kind! You refused your birthright!"

I assumed she was talking about the insect legs and ovipositor.

"You should have raised your children here with your sisters!"

I gave her a stony look and emptied the magazine of my Browning into her skull, which exploded with the equivalence of a small watermelon, spattering my face with blood and gray matter. I crouched down next to her mangled body and hissed, "I'll raise my _own_ children, not these infernal mutants."

I turned back to Drake, who was looking at me with a new respect in his eyes. I realized what a mess I must have looked, with my hair and skin smeared with grime and who knows what else, but he shook his head incredulously and laughed, "You're the most beautiful thing I've ever seen."

I reloaded my gun and cocked it back. "Really? You must have had a few before we got here."

He took my hand and we ran down the corridor again, heading for the security room. We burst through the door, and I slammed it shut behind us, slumping back against the metal surface. Drake looked at me in concern. "You alright, darling?"

My breaths were coming in short gasps as I fought to keep from crying. The sound of infant Styx being slaughtered filled my ears. I should have been doing everything in my power to protect them! I sank to the floor, burying my face in my hands.

"Mack?"

I jumped and stared at Drake for a few moments before I suddenly wrenched the door open.

"Mack, get back here!" Drake grabbed me around the waist and pulled me back into the security room. "What are you doing?"

"Let me go! I have to stop them!" I exclaimed hysterically. "I can't let them do this!"

Drake shook me. "Pull yourself together!" He yelled.

I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. _Our baby._ I thought. That was what mattered. I suddenly grabbed the collar of his uniform and kissed him hard. He pulled away after a few moments. "I'm afraid now really isn't the time." He chuckled.


	19. Chapter 20

"We'll split into two groups, one to conduct a search up here on the surface." Drake started.

"I'll coordinate that." Parry offered. "I'll call on the Old Guard again."

"And I'll lead the second group to the inner world. We can't take the risk that Danforth was spinning us a-"

I blocked out Drake's voice, which dimmed to a hazy mumbling in the back of my mind, as I breathed in the clean air and looked up into the night sky. Darkness. It surprised me how invigorating it felt to let the black night seep through my skin. I hugged myself and tipped my face toward the sky, closing my eyes and imagining the cold light of the distant stars pricking at my senses.

"Mack?" Drake turned to me. "I want you-"

"No!" I started, thinking he intended me to go off gallivanting with his father while he tackled New Germania.

He laughed and put a finger to my lips. "Let me finish. I want you with me. I need you by my side, now more than ever."

I smiled with relief.

"Didn't think I'd leave you out of the action, did you?" Drake put a hand behind my neck and pulled me close enough to kiss the top of my head, tangling his fingers in my hair.

"Take care of my son." Parry said, then he leaned in and whispered, "As well as that grandbaby of mine."

I nodded. "Will do."

I was surprised when he hugged me, as if he were saying goodbye to a daughter. Then he clapped Drake on the shoulder. "Godspeed."

Celia picked up the shovel and swung it with so great a force it knocked Eddie backward into Elliott.

"Hey! No!" Drake yelled. He yanked the shovel out of Mrs. Burrows' hands as Elliott and I tried to support Eddie. I let out a very inhuman snarl and snapped my teeth at the nearest thing...Drake's hand. He pulled away from me, his eyes wide, eyebrows arched in confusion at my sudden animosity.

"Keep her away!" Elliott yelled, glaring at Celia. "She's gone crazy."

Will rounded on her. "Mum's not crazy! These maniacs are! They messed with our lives! They ruined everything!"

Drake stepped to the middle of the room with his arms stretched out, separating Elliott and I from Will and his mother. _The Styx from the topsoilers,_ I thought ironically. "Everyone just chill. We don't have time for family feuds. Not now." He craned his head to look at Mrs. Burrows. "Celia, I want you to take some deep breaths, then go upstairs with Elliott and make tea for everyone. And you three," He looked at Will, Eddie and I. My brother was bleeding from his temple. "We're going to patch up Eddie's noggin, then plant the charges. You can settle your differences later, but right now time is running out for all of us. So is everyone going to behave like adults?" I noticed he was rubbing his hand, still looking at me strangely.

_Fear_. I realized with a terrible pang. He couldn't really be scared of me, could he?

"I thought I told you to take Celia upstairs." Drake said to Elliott when he saw she hadn't made a move.

She nodded, and moved across to Celia, who mumbled to Eddie, "I'm sorry...it was the shock-I really wasn't aware of any of that. It was the shock..."

Eddie wiped away a trickle of blood running into his eyes. "That's quite all right." He said, then he collapsed on the cellar floor.

Drake looped his arms beneath Eddie's, I grabbed his legs, and we took him upstairs, laying him on the sofa. I left Elliott to tend to her father, then cautiously approached Drake, who was still rubbing his hand.

"I'm sorry." I whispered.

He jumped, and I recoiled. It frightened me, the way he flinched as if I might bite him again. I reached out and took his hand, and he went rigid at my touch.

"You're bleeding." I said, my eyes widening as I glimpsed the gash my teeth had made in his skin. "I-I didn't think-"

"Didn't think you could get any more animal than you already are?" He growled. "We may have carved out the legs and eggs, but there are things you can't rip out with a scalpel."

My eyes narrowed, and with a quick elastic movement I punched him in the jaw. Drake staggered back and sprawled on the floor, sending chairs skidding across the room. I knelt down in front of him and seized his hand. I saw my eyes reflected in his, their black depths flashing dangerously. Then I regained my composure and gently laid his hand against my stomach. I leaned in closer so my mouth was close to his ear. "Remember?"

"Not even married and we're already having our first fight." He said.

I helped him to his feet and led him into the kitchen, where I set to rummaging through the various cupboards. I pulled out a bottle of rubbing alcohol and took a tea towel from the sill. Putting Drake's arm beneath mine, I clamped it against my side and gently daubed at the cut with the corner of the towel, to which I'd applied a good deal of the antiseptic.

He spoke quietly. "Mack? I'm sorry for what I said. Don't know what came over me."

I pressed the cloth none too gently against the bite. He flinched, but I held his arm fast, and applied a square of gauze to the cut, topping the ensemble off with a strip of medical tape. "There's been a lot of that lately." I said, not looking at him as I set to returning the items to their proper places. I threw up another Styx egg pod when I reached the sink. They were coming at less frequent intervals now, and I hoped that meant there weren't many more to go. I poked it down the sink drain and flipped the switch of the waste disposal, listening as the sac was shredded to smithereens.

"Mack?" Drake asked again, cautiously. "I-I, um-"

I put a finger to his lips. "Let's not fight, darling." I said. "I love you. I've loved you since you got away from me in the Deeps. I've loved you since you drove off that vile Tom Cox before he could fully force himself on me. I loved you the three years I tailed you through the Deeps, and I love you even more so now." I reached up and pulled his head down, standing on tiptoes so I could kiss his forehead.

Eddie suddenly called after me. I stopped short as I heard my Styx name. It had been a long time since I'd been called anything but Mack.

I turned back to him. "Yeah?"

He picked up the dry-cleaning bag at his feet and passed it to me. "I think you forgot something. Might come in handy down there." He told me with a wink.

I took it from him. _My Limiter uniform_.

Eddie suddenly wrapped his arms around me and whispered, "Good luck."

"Same to you." I answered. I walked over to Drake, still holding my uniform.

"What was that about? Sounded like the vixen scream of a red fox." Drake remarked.

"That was my name." I said quietly. "Now, shall we?"

Drake grabbed my arm. "Not so fast. You guys go on ahead for a little ways, we'll catch you up."

Colonel Bismarck nodded and led the way into the tunnel. I glanced up at Drake. "Is there a problem?"

He shrugged. "Maybe. You know about the little surprise I had Charlie giftwrap for me?"

I nodded. "Of course, I helped you deliver it."

"I gave everyone the vaccine, including you, but that was before I knew about our…well, yeah. So I want to give you an extra dosage, just in case." He pulled out a thin case and removed a syringe from inside. I stared at the long needle. "I know it looks big," He said. "Because it is. But it's the only way to inject it deep enough to ensure the vaccine makes it into your uterus. I don't want to take any chances."

I nodded. "Sure. Where do you want it?"

"Right here." He indicated a spot on his own stomach.

I sat down on the considerable pile of debris left behind from clearing the tunnel, and leaned back against the wall as he knelt down and pulled up my shirt, swabbing my skin with an antiseptic wipe.

"Just relax." He murmured, gently easing the needle into my lower abdomen.

I ignored the ache spreading out from the injection site and took a deep breath, letting it out slowly through my nose. Finally Drake removed the needle and replaced it in the case. "All done." He sighed, his head slumping against my stomach. "Oh, Mackey." He whispered. "I do hope I've made the right decision."

"Hey, what's the hold-…oh." Will trailed off as he appeared in the mouth of the tunnel and glimpsed Drake and I. "Sorry, I didn't realize, I…um…" He turned around and walked back down the tunnel and out of our line of sight.

Chuckling, Drake and I got to our feet and followed him.

"It's a subaural field. They've put one around the door to stop anyone using it. Sweeney was wearing his plugs, but he's hypersensitive to most frequencies. And, of course, Colly had no protection at all." Drake paused and looked over at me.

A subaural field? Drake and I exchanged worried glances, and I knew we were both thinking the same thing. If Colly was affected this badly without protection, then...I wore my plugs, but they couldn't protect the baby against the harmful frequencies.

Elliott ran a hand over Colly's plump stomach. "But she'll be all right?"

"She should be. Now, you're all going to get as far back as you can, because-in time honored fashion-the Colonel and I are going to blow our way through.


	20. Chapter 21

The last egg pod finally surfaced during the twenty-four hour train ride we took down to the Deeps. Everyone else had decided to sleep, as the rising temperatures discouraged any other activity. I clamped a hand over my mouth, yellow fluid spewing from between my fingers and spraying the car's other occupants. They all jerked awake as I let the egg sac fall into my hand.

"Ugh!" Elliott wiped slime from her face with disgust.

"Sorry." I mumbled.

"Feel better?" Drake asked.

I nodded, massaging my throat. Drake held his canteen to my lips and I took a gulp. "Take another." He insisted. After I had drunk enough to satisfy him, he recapped the canteen and I laid my head against his shoulder. I opened my eyes some hours later as the train ground to a halt, and Drake left to find a cart while Sweeney and I unloaded the horses. Drake took the halter of the white horse I was leading. "You ought to change." He said.

I left the group for a moment to change into my Limiter's fatigues. As I pulled on the ankle-length overcoat, I couldn't help but shake my head at how things had changed over the past months. There was a time I would have been proud to don this uniform, but now the dun-colored clothes, with their distinctive rectangular pattern, stood for everything I hated in the world. I sheared my hair off short with the help of the Styx scythe I carried at my belt so as not to give the appearance of being well off. If I was hoping to pass for a Limiter stationed in the Deeps, I would have to look the part. I shouldered my rifle and walked out to join everyone else, carrying my gas mask under my arm.

Will nearly jumped out of his skin as I laid a hand on his arm. I laughed and came to stand beside Drake, spreading my arms. "What do you think?"

I surmised from their silence that I must have stepped back into the shoes of a Limiter rather well.

"I have a question." Will said. "If Mack's dressed like that, how do we tell her from the other Limiters down here?"

"Hopefully because she won't have to interact with other Styx." Drake answered him. "But in the case she does have to do some talking, we'll smear a little of this over her back just in case."

I showed them the smudge of luminous green across my back. "If anyone asks I'll tell them I blundered into a patch of phosphorescent fungus. I'll have to trust you to check for the marker, preferably before you pull the trigger." I grinned at them.

Drake kissed my cheek and I flipped the eyepiece of my headset down before fitting the gas mask over my face. I took several deep breaths to ensure the respirator was working properly and finally signaled them all with a thumbs up.

Then we were on our way across the Great Plain, Drake, Elliott and I running on ahead of the cart, which was being driven by the Colonel. Drake carried himself with utter surety. _And why shouldn't he?_ I thought. After all, he _had_ spent years roaming this place. Elliott hadn't joined him until another three years had passed.

"Over there," I said, pointing. "That was where I saw you for the first time."

Drake followed the direction of my finger. "Really? When was that?"

"Maybe three years or so before you nabbed the boys." I said. "I had plans to follow you to your source, but I was called back to settle a long lasting dispute in the Colony."

Drake pondered this for a moment. "Was that really the _first_ time you saw me?"

"No." I admitted. "But it was the first time in the Deeps, after you gave us the slip. I saw you once when they brought you in from Topsoil, a few more times throughout the next year, before you were gone."

"Coprolite digger." I confirmed, peering through my scope. "Thirty-some coprolites, a four-man Limiter guard."

"Is that all?" Drake asked, almost sounding offended.

I rolled my eyes. "Yes, how dare they be so bold?"

We both chose a target and fired, then we quickly took out the other two Limiters. He leapt onto the rear hatch of the digger and hauled it open, gesturing me over. I slipped down the hatch and Drake closed it behind us. He and I made for the front of the vehicle. Drake sat down behind the controls and surveyed them quickly.

"Can you drive this thing?" I murmured.

Drake rubbed his hands together. "Let me work my magic." He pushed in on one of the levers and gave it a twist. The digger shuddered as the engine roared, and Drake whooped over the din. "We're in business, Mackey!"

Elliott and Sweeney joined us a short while later, then we started back for the rest of the group. Will and the Colonel joined the other two at the rear of the digger to watch the vehicle's progress from the rear hatch. I sat down in the co-driver's seat beside Drake.

"Okay! Batten down the hatch and buckle up!" He yelled at the back of the vehicle. I watched as the four of them sat down and strapped themselves in. Will gave me a thumbs up, and I nodded to Drake. He floored the accelerator. We shot off down the tunnel.

Shots pinged off of the windshield after a small interval of time. "Limiter checkpoint!" I yelled unworriedly at him.

I heard the hoots of the others in the back. The Limiters' rifles had little chance against the thick crystal windshield. Drake flashed me a smile. "Elliott! How we doing?"

The girl was holding the tracker. "We're dead on the signal!" She was showing Will the needle at the top of the detector.

"If this tunnel's been completed the whole way down, we're going to reach Smoking Jean in record time!" Drake yelled over to them. "Maybe in a few hours!"

"But the journey from Martha's shack to the submarine in Smoking Jean took us a week!" Will shouted back.

"You were following natural fault lines then, and wandering all over the shop! This is as the mole burrows!"

"Straight down!" I yelled, swooping my hand toward the floor.

Drake laughed.

"Limiter shack!" I yelled, pointing at the approaching structure.

Drake's foot seemed to press down harder on the pedal, even though he was already going full throttle. "Yee-ha!" He howled. Limiters went scattering as he sent the digger plowing through the structure.

"Straight ahead!" Elliott shouted, still manning the tracker.

More shots struck the vehicle, and then an explosion sent the digger into the air. Drake didn't let off the pedal, shouting and laughing as the digger came back down and shot forward again. I realized I had been gripping his forearm with my right hand, and let go. I braced myself against the panel and my seat as the digger smashed through an outcropping of rock. I whooped out loud.

Then I caught sight of something. "Is that-?" I yelled, pointing at the lip of rock.

"Yep!" Drake said, not letting up a fraction on the accelerator.

"Drake...what are you-?...DRAKE!" Will screamed at the top of his lungs.

The digger smashed through the rim of Smoking Jean, and then I felt my stomach drop out as the vehicle shot out into empty space. We seemed to hover for a few moments before we dropped straight down the pore.

"Stay strapped in, in case we hit anything." Drake advised as he calmly killed the engine.

Will was laughing as he screamed up at Drake. "You bloody _hooligan_! I can't believe you just did that!"

I punched Drake in the arm, and he laughed. "Some honeymoon, huh?"

I pulled off my Limiter's fatigues and left them at the rear of the digger. As I let go of my gas mask, it spun away from me in steady revolutions. I watched it for a moment in silence. It was as if I had finally sloughed off the skin of my past life, and I was watching the bits and pieces float away from me into oblivion.

"Mack?" Drake pushed down from the hatch and extended a hand to me.

I took it. "Let's get this harebrained scheme over with." I said.

Everyone lashed themselves to the huge bundle of equipment with ropes, and at the last minute I connected another length of rope to the tethers around my waist and Drake's. "Extra precaution. Wouldn't want to lose you down here."

"Nice to finally meet you in the flesh." Drake said, casually plunging his hands in his pockets as he addressed the girl. "How did you know we were here? Did you pick up the radio signals?"

The Rebecca twin shook her head.

"It was me." Vane said. "I smelled another female in heat." She sniffed again and swiveled around to look at me. "Make that two." The hideous woman glared at Elliott and I. "Why aren't you joining with us in the Phase?"

I laughed. "Because if you hadn't noticed, I _can't._" I shrugged off my jacket just enough to expose my back beneath the straps of my tank top. Rebecca and Vane looked at the large scars on my shoulder blades.

"Traitor!" Vane hissed. "What did you do with the eggs?"

Drake reached into his pocket and pulled out the slightly dried out egg. "You mean these?"

I took it from him. "The last of twenty." I said. "And I haven't been producing any more, thank goodness!" I held the egg sac up for Vane to see and crushed it in my fist. The Styx woman screeched in anger and horror, one of the ovipositors slipping out between her black lips as she looked at the liquid seeping between my fingers.

"I...want...him." Vane said, glaring at Sweeney. "I want to lay my babies in him."

"There's an offer I can't refuse." Sweeney said.

"Sparks!" Drake threw the test tube to Sweeney and lunged in front of Will as Rebecca pulled the trigger. His shoulder jerked as the bullet hit him, but his trajectory brought him barreling into Rebecca, and the two of them went over the side of the crater.

"Drake, no!" I yelled. I made as if to dive after him when something grabbed the back of my jacket.

"Sparks!" Drake yelled indistinctly as he and Rebecca rolled down. "Don't...let...her...go!"

And Sweeney didn't, holding the nape of my neck with a firm but gentle grip. I struggled wildly, then went limp as the detonator in Sweeney's hand gave a bleep.

"BOMB!" Sweeney shouted. "GET OUT OF HERE NOW!"

I glared at Vane and finally managed to wrest myself from Sweeney's grip. "You b#$^!" I screamed, and before anyone could make a move I threw myself on her. She screamed as my momentum yanked her out of Sweeney's grip, and one of her extra appendages was left in the big man's hand.

"Auntie!"

I faintly heard Elliott screaming at me, but I didn't care. I was far past caring as I pinned the Styx woman to the ground. The ovipositors snaked out of her mouth as we scratched and bit at each other. I sank my teeth into her neck and she let out a piercing shriek. I relished the taste of blood welling up through my teeth. Then very suddenly I felt our bodies tip precariously on the verge of the crater.

I heard three voices yell, "Mack!" as three figures lunged forward to grab me.

But they grabbed hold of the wrong Styx.

Elliott screamed as I rolled down the hill. I fumbled for the booster at my belt and fired it up, shooting across the ground in the direction Drake and Rebecca had taken. Thankfully, because I was only propelling myself along, I was moving faster than them. By the time I reached the zero-gravity belt I was moving at top speed, and I set to gazing around for a glimpse of Drake and the Styx girl. I used my free hand to wipe my mouth. The tang of Vane's blood was still fresh in my mouth, and I spat several times, sending beaded strings of bloody saliva spewing out into the void as I continued to rocket away.


	21. Chapter 22

**Terminal**

"You two get out of here." I said.

"Auntie, what about you?"

"I'm going to find Drake. Even if it's just his body, I have to find him." I looked at her meaningfully. "I need closure."

"But what about the baby?"

"Baby?" Will asked, looking at both of us quizzically. "Is there something you're not telling me?"

I smiled. "I'm going to have his baby." I said.

Will's eyes widened. "But...b-but what...the radiation!" He exclaimed.

I shrugged. "Drake's dead. At least then we'd be together, wouldn't we?"

"Mack." Drake mumbled.

"Take it easy, old man." Jiggs said. "We'll find your bonny lass. Just you hang on."

"Whoa, whoa! Easy old gel."

I looked up at Jiggs. "Where's Drake?"

"I'll take you to Drake." He promised. "But before I can do that, I've gotta patch you up, don't I?"

I looked down at my seared arms and singed clothing. "I'll heal. I'm Styx, remember?"

"Drake!" I exclaimed, dropping to my knees beside him. I looked down at his face, half of which was seared with blisters from the blast. Jiggs set to work on him.

"See if you can get those fatigues off, hmm?" He said as he pulled out his Medikit.

I gently eased the clothing from the upper part of Drake's torso. In some places the fabric was burned into his flesh, and he shuddered even in his comatose state as I peeled it away. I threw the clothing aside and inspected the blackened patches of skin across Drake's chest.

"Major trauma from third degree burns...huge risk of infection from this septic environment...and unless there are any supplies here, just my Medikit to work with." Jiggs rolled up his sleeves, muttering grimly to himself. "Hey ho. Off to work we go."

"He's not breathing!" I gasped.

Jiggs swore and switched me places. "No you don't, old man. You're not going to die on me." He suddenly leaned over and put his mouth to Drake's. I watched the spectacle in confusion before I saw Drake's chest rise. The older man looked up at me. "Know how to do rescue breathing? CPR?"

I shrugged.

He beckoned me over. "Quite simple. When I say, pinch his nose and breathe into his mouth, two times. Be sure to tilt his chin or the air might go to his stomach. I'll worry about the compressions." He started thumping Drake's chest. "Not today. Not on my watch." When he saw I still hadn't reacted he nodded at me fiercely. "Go on, don't be shy. I've seen you two together, I know you're not squeamish."

I leaned over and breathed two puffs of air into Drake's lungs.

"That's it." Jiggs murmured, setting to pumping the unconscious man's chest again. "That's it, old man."

And so we continued for nearly half an hour before Drake's body started functioning on its own. I helped Jiggs dress Drake's wounds.

"He'll be alright?" I whispered.

Jiggs looked worried. "We can pray, lass. Frankly, I think so. He's got something to live for, after all."

"What do you mean?"

"Oh I think you know what I mean. Two reasons. One, who _wouldn't _fight death if they had a lovely girl like you waiting for them? And two, what about that baby, hmm?"

"How'd you-?"

"Should have heard the commander going on about it."

"Parry?"

"He's a proud grandfather, to say the least."

I wet a cloth with my canteen and gently daubed at Drake's feverish face, smiling to myself.

"You know, you're doing miraculously well for someone who absorbed nearly half of a nuclear blast." Jiggs pointed out.

"Styx." I retorted. "I only hope..." I trailed off.

"-the baby'll bounce back too?" Jiggs guessed.

I nodded stiffly.

Drake and Jiggs both stopped talking as I walked into the room. Unbeknownst to them, I had returned to the fallout shelter a long time before, loitering behind the doorway to hear their conversation.

Drake was dying.

I'd known it instinctively for some time now, but hearing it straight from the two men's mouths landed my heart a stinging blow. I had been forced to retreat some distance away to staunch the tears and wait for the puffiness in my eyes to fade before I showed my face.

"Ah, there she is. My spider lady of spiders."

I forced a smile and leaned down to kiss his cheek.

"Uh-uh." He tapped his lips. "Right there. That's where it hurts, kiss it better." He made a pouty face and I managed a genuine laugh before I kissed him.

I suddenly gasped and placed a hand over my stomach.

"Mack?" Drake put an arm around me. "You all-?"

I seized his hand and held it to my midriff as the baby rolled over in my uterus again. His eyes got wide. "Is that-?" He laughed.

"What?" Jiggs had noticed we weren't keeping up and retraced his steps. I took his hand and let him feel as well. "I'll be a monkey's uncle!"

We stood there, the three of us marveling at the prospect of new life.


	22. Chapter 23

"You're dying." I choked out. "You're dying and it's all my doing!"

"Mack, how can you say that?" Drake hugged me closer.

"Because I'm a Styx and they're responsible. My people are responsible!"

"And that makes it your fault?" Drake laughed. "Look at me, love."

I did.

"You're not one of them. You've got a new family now, we..._we_ have a new family." He rested a hand on my stomach. "If it's anyone's fault it's my own for detonating a nuclear device while I was still in range of the blast." He pulled the poncho up over our heads to shield my face from the river's icy spray, and we held one another for comfort as well as warmth.

"Is that what I think it is?" Jiggs whispered.

My lips pressed together in a hard line. "Armagi," I whispered. An involuntary shudder went through me. Drake put a reassuring arm around my shoulder. "I can't be here."

"Hey now-" Drake began, but I cut him off.

"If they smell me, this entire village is done for."

Drake abandoned his scope to put his arms around me, and I leaned against his chest, trembling involuntarily. "Shh." He whispered soothingly. "Let's not make this a repeat of the Styx factory in Slough, shall we?"

"Hold on, there's something I need to attend to." Drake said. "You wouldn't happen to know of any jewelry stores, would you?"

The portly man smiled, dimples creasing his face. "Down there, Morgenstern's." He said, nodding down the street. "If the looters haven't hauled it all out, should be something in there."

"Right, thanks." Drake kissed my cheek and ran off.

"Wait, what about-?"

"Don't worry about me, love!"

I sighed. "But I do. How can I not?"

Half an hour passed, then forty-five minutes, and I began to feel anxious. What if he'd gotten sick again, or worse, become too weak to carry on and sat down on the side of the road, never to rise again? I was debating on whether or not to go looking for him when a lean form loped down the street toward us. Drake flashed something sparkly at Jiggs. "How's that look, huh?"

"Ahh, it's a beaut." The older man winked at me.

"Here, you hold 'em until the right time." Drake said, passing something to Jiggs. Then he moved forward and took my hands in his. By now I had a very good idea of what was going on. "Figured we'd better do it proper." He explained.

"Here, a bride needs a proper bouquet." Jiggs growled, snapping off one of the tree branches and arranging it with a few white flowers he tore out of the scattered gardens. He pressed the ensemble into my hands and then retreated to stand behind Drake. "Best man." He grunted when Drake shot him a questioning look.

"Do you, Mackenzie Green, or whatever your Styx name is, take me as your husband?"

"I do." I said. "And do you, Drake, or whatever your blasted bloody real name is, take me as your wife?"

"I do." Drake said. He took my left hand and slipped a silver ring, studded with small diamonds flanking a larger gem onto my finger. It fit like a charm. I slipped the sturdy silver band onto his own finger. Suddenly Drake staggered as a bout of coughing hit him.

"Whoa, take it easy old man." Jiggs said as he rushed to support him. I shuddered as his body was racked with raw sounding coughs.

Jiggs waited for the coughing to subside, then said, "Now, do you wanna do the honors or should I kiss that dratted attractive lass of yours for you and make it a real shotgun wedding?"

Drake stood up straight and fixed me with a look. "Come here, you."

I closed the gap between us and he leaned forward to give me a tender, loving kiss. I was loathe to let him go, but we finally pulled apart. I tasted blood on my lips and it took everything to keep the tears at bay. But I was so happy I could have cried out for joy.

Jiggs and the portly fellow from the blockade applauded. Drake unsteadily swept me off my feet in proper wedding style, and I tossed my bouquet. Jiggs caught it and winked at us. Then Drake carried me over to the horses, where he mounted before reaching down to help me up. I swung on behind him and wrapped my arms around his waist. Jiggs got onto his own horse.

"How romantic." I muttered.

Drake laughed and gave his horse a gentle nudge. "Off we go."

Drake slumped over the wooden fence, heaving and coughing. I flinched as convulsions wracked his body. He spit into the grass, then teetered precariously before I rushed over to support him. He rested one hand on the fence and turned to look at me. His lips were tainted red. His body swayed, he looked rather tipsy. I slipped one arm behind his back and laid my other hand against his stomach.

"Hey. Why don't you take a break?"

He shook his head. "We need to get to Parry-"

"Don't make me pull rank." I said threateningly. "As your wife I'm telling you to rest."

He chuckled. "So it's come to that, has it?"

"Just for a while."

"Please, I want to help. I have to help, I won't sit by and let him suffer like this. If there is a way to make it easier…"

Jiggs looked back at Drake and sighed. "If I could get my hands on some kind of antiemetics, it would help to ease the symptoms."

I nodded. "It's a start. What do you need?"

"Let me see your hand." He pulled out a pen and began scrawling words on my palm. "First there's haloperidol, it'll come in an injection, given to reduce nausea and vomiting. Zofran, or ondansetron…then there's meclizine tablets, diphenhydramine, also injections, and lastly hydroxyzine, which will be easiest found in a syrup form since it's easier for children to take. Those last three are best for mild nausea, meclizine can help with motion sickness."

I nodded again. "Right."

Jiggs passed me his reins. "Drake and I will continue on our present course. And for goodness sake, lass, be fast about it."

"You can count on it." I urged Jiggs's horse into a gallop and took off down the street in search for a hospital.

It was odd to see the city so barren, especially since Drake and I had spent months here among the hustle and bustle of everyday London life.

A hospital was easy to find. Breaking into a hospital proved to be not so simple a task. The doors at the entrance had been smashed in, perhaps in a rush on the supplies after mass panic had ensued following the Armagi scourge. I lashed the horse's reins to a parking meter, testing it would prove strong enough in the case the animal tried to bolt, and stepped through the broken windows.

I located the inhospital pharmacy. Not surprisingly it was locked. I rammed my shoulder against it in desperation, kicking at the doorjamb with a despairing scream. It would be impossible to break the glass with the mesh inside. I suddenly remembered the handgun at my belt. I yanked it out, angry at myself for wasting so much time. I shot the lock through, burst into the room, and was almost immediately dumbfounded by the various brands and labels all arranged in a seemingly random order on what felt like hundreds of shelves. I instantly began pulling bottles at random, examining the labels and tossing them to the ground when they bore the wrong names. Glancing between the barely legible writing on my palm and the no more comprehensible names on the bottles and packets, I felt my heart racing in my chest. Time was precious, and it was not on my side.

_Atarax Syrup,_ I read. No good. I got ready to drop it, then noticed the smaller writing beneath the name. _Hydroxyzine._ It matched a drug on my list. I located the small bottle of haloperidol, seized a handful of pre-wrapped syringes, and ran out of the pharmacy, the meclizine tablets rattling in the bottle as I went. I shoved the drugs deep in my pockets, treating them like precious cargo which, I supposed, they were.

Then I unlooped the horse's reins from the parking meter and galloped back down the road.

"With how far along he is, I'd say throw caution to the wind and give it all."

I nodded and tossed him one of the syringes and the haloperidol, and he set to prepping the injection. I unscrewed the bottle of hydroxyzine and poured some onto a spoon.

Drake set to protesting. "I'm not a kid anymore, I can take my medicine."

"Shh." I interrupted him.

"Let me guess. You're pulling rank again?"

I grinned. "You catch on fast." I gently supported his head as I spooned medicine into his mouth.

He grimaced. "Tastes like-"

"Shh." I said again, already refilling the spoon. "Come on, open up."

"It won't make a difference."

I put my fingers to his lips. "Even so, as your wife, I signed on to the responsibility of nursing you back to health, whether my attempts are futile or not, and I intend to go on doing just that. For as long as necessary."


	23. Chapter 24

"Save yourselves, if you can." He pleaded with us. "Look at me. I'm done for anyway."

"No." I took his hand. "Not if I have anything to do with it." I pulled my knife out of my belt and proceeded to carve the blade across my wrist.

"What are you doing?!" Drake protested.

"If they won't bother me, they won't bother you if they can smell me on you." I said.

Elliott nodded. "It worked with Will."

"See? So quit complaining and let me do my job."

He grinned. "Why did I marry you? Had I known you would be pulling the 'wife' thing so often-"

"You'd have done no different." I said, lovingly leaning my forehead against his. "You love me too much. Come on."

Elliott and I helped him to his feet just as Jiggs rolled the tank into the cathedral. I assisted Drake up onto the turret, then down the hatch. Once inside I pushed him down. "Lie down, darling." I said.

He groaned. "Yes, sir."

I placed a rolled up tarpaulin behind his head as a make-shift pillow. "Elliott, there's a drawstring pouch near the hatch. Fetch it for me."

She did so.

Drake made a face. "Not going to dose me up with that putrid slop again, are you?"

"Not a word from you, young man." I tried my best to sound jocular, but when I looked at his drained face and the way his body slumped against the tank wall with evident exhaustion…I shook my head and unscrewed the cap of one of the bottles. "Take these." I shook out a few meclizine tablets into my palm and held my hand to his mouth. He let me drop the capsules into his mouth, then I held my canteen to his lips. "Come on."

He dutifully took a gulp of water. I unwrapped a syringe and stuck it into the haloperidol.

"You know, I really hate shots."

I flicked the syringe, squirting out a thin stream to remove the bubbles, and gently rolled up his shirt sleeve. "Don't be a baby." I stuck the needle into his arm.

"Suppose it's a girl?" He asked suddenly.

"What?"

He looked at me. "You said 'baby'. Suppose it's a girl?"

I shrugged. "Why speculate? It'll be one or the other."

"My son. He's still alive!" Parry exclaimed.

"And my daughter, too." Eddie put in. "And my sister!" He said as Parry said, "And my daughter-in-law!"

"If it isn't the abomination." Alex said scathingly. "_Mack_. The Styx joke."

I matched her sneer. "I'm sorry to say I left the bug spray at home, so I suppose I'll have to settle for the bottom of my boot. Don't you know? That's where insects such as yourself belong."

She grinned evilly. "Oh my dear little sister. We are one and the same."

I curled my lip. "I'm no sister of yours."

She laughed harshly. "I am you, and you are me. There is no escaping what you are. You're an animal. A beast. The most powerful to walk the Earth, as well as scamper through its entrails, playing soldier like one of the boys. Look at yourself." She looked pointedly at my crude, rudimentary haircut which was sawed off too short in some places, making uneven patches throughout. Her eyes seemed to look down on me, as if pointing out my obvious short stature. "You try so hard to fit in."

"I was bred to be a soldier." I said evenly.

"Yes, just like big brother." She said, her voice oozing with sickeningly sweet mockery. "How cute."

I folded my arms. "Why don't you cut to the chase? What do you want?"

"Why dear sister _Mackerel_, I should think that obvious. I want the head of you, and your lover. No." She turned to look at Drake. "Which would be more painful? You having to watch while he was eviscerated by my children…or the other way around?"

Drake glared at her. "Keep your slimy bug-legs off of her."

Alex arched her eyebrows in mock surprise. "Or what?"

"No!" I screamed. I helped Drake to the pavement as the blood seeped from the twin bullet holes in his chest. I pressed my hands over the wounds, trying in vain to staunch the blood flow.

"It's better this way, isn't it, Mackey?" He said painfully. "I'd rather it be like this than waiting for the radiation to do me in."

"You idiot." I growled through my tears. I gently put a hand behind his head to support him, smearing his own blood across his face and hair. "You bloody idiot."

"I would have...I would have..." He coughed.

"Shh. Save your breath." I whispered, laying my fingers over his lips.

"I would have da-danced with y-you." He said with great effort, taking several painful breaths between words. "I would have danced w-with you in the...in the r-rain."

"I know."

"Do something for me?"

I nodded. "Anything."

"Call him James." He gasped.

I nodded again, hot tears trickling down my cheek.

I threw myself across his chest and buried my face in his neck, sobbing outright as a final ragged sigh escaped his lungs. I pulled him into my arms, my tears dampening his face, not paying attention to the proceedings around me…I didn't care about that. They had taken the one thing in my life I could never live without. If we were to die, at least it would be together, in each other's arms.

Or with me clutching Drake in my arms.

I glared at Alex over Drake's head, nodding approvingly at Elliott as she stepped forward to confront the Styx woman.

Alex looked down at me disdainfully. "That was too easy."

"You're a coward." I spat, though with less conviction than I'd hoped. My voice shook as I held my husband, my entire body trembling.

"Elliott?" I asked hesitantly as I looked down at my hands. They were beginning to blur, switching out of focus. "No. No, _no_, NO!" I screamed, trying to hold onto Drake's body as my own disintegrated.


	24. Chapter 25

"Mack?" The first thing I heard was my brother howling my name. He sprinted across the green, freshly turfed ground and seized my arm, dragging me away from a slightly dazed Alex and into the jungle several hundred yards away.

"Where's Elliott?" I asked.

"She made it inside the tower." He answered. "What were you thinking, sitting there like that?"

"I don't know. Rather foolish of me, wasn't it?" I started to laugh, then I remembered Drake, and my expression turned somber.

We were the only female Styx left alive, I realized. Me, eight Limiters, my brother, my half-Styx niece, and the half-Styx child growing inside of me. We were all that was left.

I let this new revelation sink in as I gently laid my hands over my stomach.

"The bullets missed his heart, and miraculously enough his lung wasn't too badly damaged once we opened him up." Parry gestured at a metal medical tray, where two bullets were laying after being extracted from Drake's chest. "But look how quickly he's healing." He indicated the incision wound down the man's chest, nearly as ugly and crude as Will's.

Jiggs shook his head. "That's not all. Look at this, the color's coming back into his skin, and his hair's growing back. The redness around his eyes and mouth is practically gone."

"How?" Will asked incredulously as he stared down at the man.

Jiggs and Parry shrugged. "That's what we've been trying to figure out. I've heard of a will to live, but I've never seen the likes of this before. He was so heavily irradiated he should be long dead, but there's something keeping him going."

"I think I've got the answer to that." One of Parry's medical officers walked into the room and passed the commander a file.

Parry flipped it open and scanned over the papers within, his eyebrows hiking high on his forehead. "Are these for real?"

The MO shrugged. "Those are our most recent results."

"What is it?" Will demanded.

"These results say there was a small amount of Styx cells found in his blood." Parry looked over at his comatose son.

Will was confused. "How'd they get there?"

Jiggs suddenly laughed. "That bonny lass of his!"

"Mack?"

Parry nodded judiciously. "They've had an intimate relationship. It's possible some of her cells were transferred to him."

"If that's true, it was only a few." The MO said. "Which would explain why he's healing more slowly."

"You should have seen Mack heal up after I found her following the blast." Jiggs whistled. "She was even more irradiated than Drake."

Will shook his head.

"That, combined with the subconscious need to be with his wife. You're bound and determined to see that baby of yours, aren't you, Drakey m'boy?" Jiggs exclaimed.

"Then why wasn't he transported to the Inner World with Elliott, Eddie, and the rest of them?"

"Maybe there has to be a certain proportion of cells in order to qualify as a Styx?"

"Elliott!" I shouted. I sighed and put my hands on my hips, peering at the vast stretch of green, at the center of which, the gray tower stood like a huge needle plunged into the ground. The girth of my stomach had nearly doubled in the five-weeks since we had been transported to this place of endless day. It also made it difficult to move around, and I found myself tiring after only an hour of searching in the sunlight. I wore a pair of dun-brown trousers, pilfered from the corpse of one of Alex's Limiters, since I had long outgrown my own clothes.

I leaned against the trunk of a tree, wiping the sweat from my palms onto my trousers.

"Mack?" Eddie emerged from the jungle beside me. "Any luck?"

I shook my head. "None. It's been over a month. You'd think she'd show up by now."

Eddie looked at my face. "You look exhausted, you really should lie down."

I was too tired and dejected to argue. I followed him back to the camp where he helped me sit down in the shade provided by a lean-to. "Now, try to get some sleep."

"Easy for you to say."

He brushed his thumb across my forehead. "I love you, Mack."

This statement came so unexpectedly I could only stare at him a moment, managing to offer a weak response, "I know."

He sighed, as if realizing his affections were not reciprocated with as much passion as when he offered them. "Get some rest," He said again.

I was aware of him standing at the entrance of the lean-to as I slipped off into a shallow slumber. I had noticed the way he looked at me over the last weeks. I understood that he felt responsible to watch over me with Drake gone, but…the way he _looked_ at me… I would notice his eyes, when he thought I wasn't looking, as they passed over my abdomen, their black irises swelling with a warm paternal affection. He was also far more protective of me than before, never letting me out of his sight for more than an hour if I was lucky. His hands were gentle, his words firm but tender. Where he had once been slow to touch me, he now had no qualms about taking my hand or arm, or putting a hand against the small of my back to guide me through the tangled jungle.

The way his eyes followed me, taking in everything I did, as if the very act of my breathing was the most succulent of foods he wished to savor slowly. Even the way he spoke of my child, saying 'our' family, and not in a way that said he were gaining a niece or nephew. It was as if I were giving birth to his baby and not Drake's.

But through all of this, my mind and heart were fixated on another: the man who I had left, shot to death, lying on the ground within St. Paul's cathedral. He could not be replaced, even by my own brother.

Had I never kissed anyone else in my life, I might have called it passionate. But I had been with Drake, felt his lips, and Eddie's barely qualified as competition. All I felt was heat and a hard mouth, not firm like Drake's, but stony and distant, like a rock doing its best to show emotions. I wasn't sixteen anymore, and I had grown up and tried a different variety than the affections of my brother.

And yet I didn't resist, though I didn't kiss him back immediately.

"You're my brother." I whispered when he paused to come up for air.

"That didn't stop us thirteen years ago."

I closed my eyes and he pressed his cheek against the top of my head. "No, it didn't." I agreed. "But so much has changed."

"Has it really?" He was persistent. I looked up at him and he kissed me again. And although it wasn't Drake, it was intimate attention, nevertheless. The kind I had been craving since my husband's untimely demise. Was I really so desperate though, as to go about procuring such attention from _Eddie_, and go stringing him along, getting his hopes up?

I reached up and pushed my fingers through his hair, pulling him down closer.

"Dad?"

I pulled away from Eddie as Elliott's voice penetrated through the jungle. I took a moment to collect myself, then looked my brother in the eye. "_That's_ why we can't do this." I said. "For the sake of our children."

I took his hand and laid it on my stomach. "You're not his father," I whispered. "But you _are_ his uncle. Those shoes have to be filled as well."


	25. Chapter 26

"You shouldn't be up and walking around." Eddie chastised me gently. "Not in your condition."

I shook my head. "Can't sit still."

"You were always fidgety. Even so, I had hoped a few extra pounds would be enough to hold you down. Evidently I misjudged you." He took my arm and guided me over to a rock. "Now _please_, come and sit down."

"I don't think I need to remind you it's me having this baby, not you." I snapped irritably. Even so, I sat down with a humph, massaging my lower back.

Eddie shook his head and gazed at me admonishingly. "How many times must I tell you not to wander off?" He asked. "I'll beg on bended knee if necessary, but you _have _to stay within the camp. I'll set up a guard if I have to."

"You already tried that." I reminded him.

He gave me a jaundiced look. "Yes, and you threatened to tear his throat out. I don't know which is more intimidating, you during the Phase or you being pregnant."

"There's a difference?" I growled sarcastically. The pain in my back felt so much like the Phase transformation, just a foot and a half lower. "What could happen? It's not as if there're any more tigers out there, waiting to rip me to shreds. The worst case scenario is if I were to get pecked to death by exotic birds!"

"Listen to me." Eddie crouched down in front of me. He didn't meet my eyes as he spoke. "You're carrying the child of a man I respected very much. A man who I considered a close colleague, dare I say it, a friend, even. He'd never forgive me if I let his pregnant wife, _my sister_, out of my sight."

"He's dead!" I spat. "It's not as if his opinion makes much of a difference anymore."

Eddie took my hands in his, very pointedly rubbing his finger across the ring on my left hand. "If that's the case, why is it you insist on wearing that ring?"

I didn't answer.

"Come on." My brother stood up and offered me his hand. I took it reluctantly and slowly got to my feet. We started weaving our way through the jungle, back toward camp, when I suddenly felt something warm trickle down my leg, slowly at first until it suddenly spurted out, as if there was a hose between my legs.

"Oh. OH!" I gasped, clutching my stomach. "My water…oh, it broke."

"Mack?"

The first contractions started up as mere aching in my gut, then gradually progressed into painful back labor, which I supposed was brought on by the baby's head pressing against my spine. I groaned and slumped against Eddie for support.

"Keep walking, Mack." He murmured, keeping his arms around me as we walked the rest of the way back to camp. "Come on, that's right. Just breathe."

I glanced up at him. "You look terrified."

"I have good reason to be. Who do you think's going to act as midwife?"

I groaned as Eddie helped me down onto the ground inside one of the shelters that had been erected in the pyramid shortly after our arrival in the inner world. I yelped as another contraction flared in my abdomen. Eddie balled up a jacket and placed it beneath my head. I took a deep breath and leaned my head back, inhaling through my nose, exhaling through my mouth in a steady pattern.

"You don't have to be here right now, you know?" I muttered. "It'll be a while yet."

Eddie looked worried. "It would be irresponsible-"

"Rubbish!" I interrupted.

He hesitated, but I shot him a meaningful look. "We'll need warm water anyway." He said, and he got to his feet and left the shelter.

"Yes, you do that." I muttered. I used the watch on my wrist to time the contractions as they came. "Eight minutes." I finally concluded after half an hour of counting. I moaned as another series of spasms hit. Suddenly a horrible ache spread out from my back. I shrieked, sitting up straight.

"Mack?" Eddie poked his head through the doorway. "You alright?"

I glared and waved him away. "Fine. Just fine, don't worry. You'll know when I need you."

Elliott came in after another half-hour. "Auntie Mack?"

I did my best to smile. "Hey. Nice of you to show." I glanced at my watch again as I felt the next contraction. "Five minutes."

The Styx girl came to sit beside me. "Dad says I should try to talk to you."

"You can try." I concurred.

She hesitantly laid a hand on my stomach and I reached up to place my fingers over hers. "Mmm. Oh…" I squeezed my eyes shut. "Owww. Like having a stalker set loose in your insides." I muttered.

Elliott did her best to soothe me, gently rubbing my arms as she rocked uncomfortably back and forth, unsure of what to do.

"Ah, screw this." I growled, heaving myself to my feet.

"Auntie?"

"Got to keep moving." I started walking around the room, slowly at first, then more vigorously, looking at my watch every so often to keep track of my contractions. Yet another thirty minutes passed without much excitement. I sat down again, massaging my lower back. Suddenly Elliott leapt up. "Auntie, there's blood!"

"Is there?" I growled. "About bloody time. I suppose you ought to fetch your father."

She didn't hesitate, springing from her place at my side and sprinting to the entrance. "Dad! Dad, hurry!"

I rolled my eyes as Eddie ran into the room. "Elliott, there's a pan of warm water over the fire, bring it in."

The girl did as she was asked as the former Limiter knelt down in front of me and gently pulled up the rim of my hideous maternity dress to check my progress. He cast a worried glance at me. "How do you feel?"

I grunted, puffing air in and out of my lips as I tried to refrain from pushing. I felt the pressure inside of me as the baby descended through the birth canal. It was now or never.

The lack of gravity had made carrying a baby easier, but it made labor a pain. Even so, pushing was relatively easy when I looked back at the hours I had spent battling painful contractions.

"That's it, Mack. You're going to be fine."

"I know." I commented through gritted teeth.

"You're going to be-"

"I KNOW!" I yelled.

Elliott backed into the room with a steaming pan held in her hands. She sat it down and crouched beside her father. A gasp caught in her throat as she took in a sharp breath. "Dad, is that-?"

"The head! Yes, we can see the head, Mack. You're almost there. Come on, another push."

I nearly blacked out as I gave a final yell, howling at the ceiling as my baby slid into the world.

"What is it?" I said.

Eddie looked down at the infant he held in his hands. "A boy." He said quietly, then he repeated it in a louder voice. "A boy!"

_Call him James._

Drake's last words came to my mind as I held our son in my arms. "A boy. How the devil did you know?" I murmured. "Alright. James it is."

Eddie kissed my sweating forehead, then pulled back just enough so that we could exchange understanding looks. "I'm sorry, Mack." He whispered. He gently placed a thick blanket over me and my son, then stood up and beckoned to his daughter. "Elliott, come along. Let's let them have a moment, shall we?"

Elliott squeezed my hand before following her father out of the room.

I gazed down at my son as the tears sprang fresh from my eyes. The entire situation agitated my heart, which had already been rubbed raw by months of grieving for my husband. "Oh Drake." I whispered. "Why aren't you here to see your son? Your beautiful son." I kissed James's head, the soft down of his hair brushing against my lips as I breathed in the fresh, newborn smell, cradling him close to my chest. "Where are you?" I sobbed.

The infant cooed in complaint as my body shuddered with the onset of my tears. I didn't try to stem the flow, giving in to the emotional stream that was fast becoming a flood.

"Not even married for a week, and I'm a widow." I muttered dismally. "Must be a record. But now I have you." I kissed my son again. "Oh, Drake. You should be here. You should be here."


	26. Chapter 27

"Mack?" Eddie called over to me.

"What is it?"

"We have a visitor."

"DRAKE!" I sprinted at him and leapt into his arms, looping my legs around his waist and flinging my arms around his neck. He held me close, staggering slightly under the new weight, but he didn't put me down. I ran my fingers through his hair. His _hair_! His full head of wonderfully thick dark hair, and kissed him good and hard.

"Ugh!" Elliott grimaced. But it didn't matter, I thought, tears running down my face as I laughed out loud. It had been so long since I'd laughed like that.

"You were dead." I kept whispering. "You were dead."

Drake set me down and hugged me again. "Far from it." He chuckled, kissing me all over my face, much to the revulsion of my niece.

"I saw you gunned down by Limiters." I said confusedly.

He unbuttoned his shirt and showed me two scars from the bullets marring his chest.

"How...b-but the radiation sickness, the blood, the nausea, the-?" I started, but he cut me off.

"Let's not worry about that." He said. He pulled me into his arms and swung me around several times so my feet came off the ground.

Suddenly an insistent cry came from another room. Drake put me down and looked at me in shock. "No."

"Yes!" I laughed. "Yes, yes, yes!"

"Tell me that's not what I think it is."

I kissed him quickly. "It's exactly what you think it is." I eagerly took his hand and led him toward the sound. He stared down at the six-month old boy in the makeshift crib, his mouth hanging slightly open, and his prominent eyebrows frowning as if he didn't quite know what to do or think. I studied his face anxiously, watching for his reaction. Drake looked at the boy for a long while, his eyes obviously critiquing the obvious Styx features...a full head of black hair...pale skin. He turned to look at me. "Mine?"

I laughed. "Who else could he belong to?"

"Well, I'm not exactly familiar with the Styx's attitude toward incestuous relationships, but I recall you telling me once you've been intimate with-"

I laughed so hard I snorted. "_Eddie_? He's my brother!" I exclaimed. "And besides, look at this." I lifted my son from his crib and held him up so his father could see his face.

"Blue eyes." Drake murmured.

"_Your _eyes." I said.

"So Jiggs was right. You did have something to fight for."

"Of course I did. I shouldn't have been alive...I didn't _want_ to be alive, but somehow I pulled through. I have you to thank for that."

I looked at him quizzically.

"Apparently when we conceived James, you passed some of your Styx genes on to me. Only a few cells, but it was enough to repair the damage and reverse the irradiation, same as it did for you, just a lot more slowly. I stayed in the colony with Celia and Will, I spent months recovering. Then I decided it was time to track down my lovely wife, because like it or not, I am still your husband." He hugged me close to his chest. "And I'll never let you go. Never again."


	27. Chapter 14

"Getting a little jealous, are we?" I asked him teasingly.

"Yes." Drake admitted. "I mean, I know you're Styx and I understand wanting to be with your own people but…"

I shook my head. "Darling, you have nothing to worry about."

It hadn't been lost on Will how Eddie's men regarded their leader's sister: not with the same ascendancy they treated the other Styx women, but with the familiarity of greeting an old friend.

"You look different," Will suddenly blurted at me one day.

"What?" I turned to look at him. It sounded more like he was thinking aloud, because Will's eyes got wide as if his tongue had fired off without the go-ahead from his brain.

"I-I mean..." Will stuttered. Then he squared his shoulders. "You look different from the other Styx women. You act different."

"Will-" Drake moved as if to reprimand the boy, but I raised a hand to silence him.

"Let him say his piece." I said.

"You're a Limiter, aren't you?" Will said. "Your shoulders are broader, like you're used to carrying a pack, and you walk like military. You know your gun inside and out and can use it better than Elliott, and you do hand-to-hand combat like it's second nature."

"That wasn't what gave it away though, was it?" I guessed.

Will shook his head and pointed at Eddie's men. "They're not scared of you."

I laughed. "You have keen eyes, kid." I said. "Yes, I _was_ a Limiter. Some of these men served under me. In fact, I was part of the group that you and Chester saw in the Deeps before Drake found you. I took part in the order to exterminate the renegades in the Deeps."

Will was confused. "They didn't see us."

"Well, maybe the twelve you had your eyes on didn't see you, but the thirteenth one did. I was watching you from a stone outcrop through my scope. Could have shot you dead before you knew what had hit you."

"Then why didn't you?" Drake asked, rubbing the back of his head as he realized how close of a shave he'd had.

I shrugged. "I often ask myself that." Then I paused to grin up at Drake. "Maybe it's because I fell in love with a doddering old tosspot I helped my brother drag out of a pub in London Soho. But it's more likely it was because of Elliott."

"Elliott?" Will asked with some puzzlement.

"Me?" Elliott said.

"I knew my niece had run away from home, and I wanted to know if she was as hardy as her father. I volunteered for the renegade mission thinking I might catch sight of her, which I did."

"How?" Elliott blurted. "I mean, how did you know it was me?"

"You move like a Styx." I said. "And regardless of what you were wearing, I'd know that thin physique anywhere. I was about to call a warning to my men down with the Coprolites that I'd found the boys when I saw you and Drake sneak up on them. I followed you for two miles before I returned to my patrol."

Drake whistled. "Two miles? And we didn't hear you?"

"You saw me." I said.

Drake thought for a moment, then turned his wide eyes on me. "That was _you_?" He asked incredulously.

I nodded. "Then I followed you again when you went to get Will's brother out of the sugar trap." I looked back at Elliott. "You did a good job setting up those trips." I said.

Elliott gasped. "You were there?"

I chuckled. "I followed you the entire way back to your base, did a sloppy job of hiding myself, too."

"Elliott checks out. Now all that's left is to get you cleared for duty." Drake said.

"And let me guess, that's my straightjacket?" I pointed at the bundle tucked under his arm.

He passed the hospital gown to me. "Close enough."

I suddenly stopped walking, cracking my neck as the pain in my shoulders seemed to spread. Drake and Eddie noticed I was no longer with them, and turned to look back at me. Eddie laid a hand on my arm. "Hey."

My breathing went deep, as if the air had gotten thicker. I yanked out of my brother's grip. "Get away from me."

Both of them walked toward me.

"Stay away from me!" I screamed. I went down on all fours, chest heaving.

"Mack-" Drake moved forward again but I gestured violently at him to keep his distance.

"No! I don't want to hurt you! I won't hurt you! I can't." I bowed my head. "I can't." Suddenly my back arched in pain. I screamed again. Something powerful, yet terrible, yanked at my navel and burrowed into my brain. An overpowering instinct to reproduce and lay my eggs. It overshadowed any other thought in my mind. I was suddenly very aware of the organ rising out of my throat, and even more attuned in matters of what it was meant to do.

Eddie suddenly stepped forward. "Drake. I have an idea."

"What kind of an idea?"

"One that means we'll have to act fast." The Styx said. "_Very_ fast, if we want to stop this getting any further."

"Do it." I said as something other than drool dripped from my mouth. _Lubricant for the ovipositor_, I realized with a grimace. My self-control was fast losing its grip, giving way to the frightening animal instinct growing within me. "Do it!"

I shrieked as the skin on my back tore, and the insect legs extended, stretching slowly like the limbs of a newborn animal and dripping blood down my neck.

Eddie raised his gun without hesitation and shot a tranquilizer dart into my neck.

I reached a hand up and plucked it out, gazing at it for a moment before flinging it at the ground and leaping to my feet. Drake and Eddie sprinted for the door with me hot on their tails. _Warm bodies_. That was all I needed. Somewhere safe to lay my eggs. I collided with the door just before they slammed it shut, throwing my entire weight against the surface.

"Why didn't it work?" Drake shouted.

"Her metabolism's gotten underway!" Eddie yelled back. "Must be countering the effects of the tranquilizer."

Both men braced themselves against the door as I repeatedly rammed into it, shrieking at the top of my lungs. My insect legs rubbed together in a frenzy, creating a sound like a sinister cricket with a megaphone. I gave an almighty heave and threw the door open. Both of them staggered away, and I stalked into the room. My eyes went from one to the other, contemplating on who would be best to impregnate first.

Eddie pointed his gun at me and pulled the trigger. Then again, and again, and again. The dosage slowly took effect, not putting me out as it was meant to, but it at least slowed me down. I sat down in confusion, my eyes hazing over. Drake and Eddie approached me, hobbling my legs and winding cord around the insect legs.

The events following were shrouded in a foggy delirium. I remember being restrained to a bed, yanking at my bonds and thrashing as someone plunged a needle into my neck, effectively numbing my entire back.

I blinked slowly. The first thing I saw was a pair of blue eyes looking down at me with concern, but they brightened considerably as I groaned. "Easy, love." Drake said, putting a hand on my shoulder to stop me sitting up. "How do you feel?"

"Got a blinder of a headache." I rasped, and Drake laughed. "Hurts to swallow. What did you do?"

It was Eddie who answered. "We removed the extra appendages from your back, and the ovipositor from where it was emerging in your throat."

I looked over at my brother. He nodded to a tray, where a pair of shining black insect legs lay in a pool of blood. A slightly deflated tube lay beside them. I groped along the table until I found Drake's hand, locking my fingers between his.

"You stopped it."

"We stopped it." Drake bent over me and kissed my forehead. He made as if to straighten up, but I hurriedly put a hand behind his head to hold him there as I pressed my mouth against his. Eddie had to clear his throat several times before we finally broke apart.

"The instinct, however," my brother continued. "Is still present and accounted for. Can't remove that without performing a full scale dissection, and Drake wouldn't allow a single finger near that pretty head of yours."

Drake rolled his eyes. "Styx sarcasm at its finest."

"Which is why I would keep my distance for a while." Eddie said pointedly to Drake, but the man stayed where he was, holding my hand with a look in his eyes that said he had no intention of letting go.

"Hungry." I suddenly realized, as if as an afterthought. "In fact, _really_ hungry."

"I'll go and get you something." Drake offered.

Eddie followed him out. "Try not to eat anyone while we're gone." He said, half in jest half in complete solemnity, before shutting the door.


End file.
